By Herbert Mitgang.
Product Code: M58000
Full-length Play
Drama
Cast size: 1m.
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"Eloquent" was how the Washington Star described the production at Ford's Theatre in Washington, the place where Lincoln was assassinated. When the play reached Broadway, the N.Y. Times called it "human and humane." This is Lincoln's life and mind from the moment he stepped on the public stage, during his youth and maturity in Illinois as an advocate, to the momentous years he spent in Washington as the great emancipator during the Civil War. The events and ideas are rooted in historical records and new discoveries by the playwright about Lincoln the man, the husband, the wartime commander in chief, the president—with special emphasis on Lincoln's own brilliant language. By the conclusion of the play, the audience has discovered the inner life of the human, humorous, and often troubled president's personal and public self. The Lincoln who emerges in this show is no country bumpkin but a wise and often shrewd man of both velvet and steel.
Mr. Lincoln is a play that makes considerable demands on the performer, but the audience response has always been so strong and so positive that I felt that my exertions were justified. As one audience member told me after my second performance on 4th July, 1998, "It's too good to let it go." And so, I haven't let it go. I have given six performances of this play and am planning a further performance in November this year to mark the tenth anniversary of my first performance in 1997.
This two-act play has an outstanding script. It brings to life Lincoln's humor, melancholy, shrewdness, tenderness and his politics. The show's length is appropriate, running 80 to 90 minutes with intermission. The audience remains engaged throughout the performance. The script is historically accurate, yet highly theatrical. It doesn't get too "dry."
The scenery can be very simple. Our backdrop was an oversized 1860's map of the Union. Lincoln's bench was turned up vertically on its side and became his podium. Music interspersed throughout helps add variety.
Location | City | State | Opens | Closes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hoogland Center for the Arts | Springfield | IL | 04/25/2025 | 04/27/2025 |
Jonathan Perry, Music Theatre of Idaho, Nampa, ID 83686