A feel-good ‘Mark Twain and the Laughing River’

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Jim Post plays the title character in "Mark Twain and the Laughing River."

Updated: January 31, 2012 8:10AM

“Mark Twain and the Laughing River” was a big hit when it first opened in the mid-1990s at the Northlight Theatre in Evanston.

It was a glorious show then, and now it’s aged like a fine wine, soaring in a delicious revival at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Ind.

Set against a homey Victorian parlor, the one-man, biographical musical in which writer-actor-composer Jim Post channels the imaginative spirit and incredible times of America’s iconic writer, still shines like a precious gem.

Sporting a white linen suit, white wavy hair and a drooping white mustache, Post looks eerily like America’s great humorist.

Indeed, Post’s resemblance to Twain is so uncanny that it prompted his friends to suggest that Post reincarnate the raconteur on stage.

Throughout the two-hour presentation, Post is compelling.

You can’t take your eyes off him as he sprinkles songs that he wrote around Twain’s witty stories and ironically funny observations that celebrated life on the mighty Mississippi River.

With a honey-voiced Irish tenor, Post sings melodies he composed to match Twain’s profundity, charm and comic grace.

He shares quotes and quips from Twain accompanied by sweet country music numbers that include “Mighty Big River,” “Huckleberry Finn,” “Uncle John’s Farm,” “Naked Little Boy,” “Steamboat’s Comin’,” “Maybe I’ll be a Cowboy,” “Hannibal” and “I’m Gonna Move to San Francisco.”

Post portrays Twain in his later years as he looks back on his life and shares important insights that chronicle his life during which he became a steamboat captain, traveled out West and became a popular storyteller.

Of course, Post brings up “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain’s masterpiece on racism, hypocrisy and friendship.

One of the most controversial and influential novels of all time, the novel centers on the rafting journey of a white boy and the black runaway slave he befriends.

Audiences also will hear Twain talk about how he was born prematurely and sickly.

With so much against him from the start, Post as Twain says, “I should have been a pessimist, but I learned to be a cynic.”

Post doles out even more of Twain’s folksy biblical wisdom when he says that “the only reason God created man was because he was so disappointed with the monkey.”

As the show progress, we also learn about how Twain lost his fortune with poor investments, which he recouped by going on the lecture circuit.

As one sits in the audience watching Post portray Twain, it feels as though one is sitting in front of the great man, listening to one of those popular lectures.

“Mark Twain and the Laughing River” is filled with Twain’s wit, wisdom and wry humor, and Post’s finger-snapping, melodic country music.

This is such a smart, funny and feel-good show that there’s a good chance you’ll want to see it more than once.

Betty Mohr is a local free-lance writer.