Blair Brown, Stephen Lang and Fritz Weaver Perform LINCOLN'S FAVORITE SHAKESPEARE at Metropolitan Museum

We all know that President Abraham Lincoln met his tragic end while enjoying a performance of OUR AMERICAN COUSIN at Ford's Theatre at the hands of actor John Wilkes Booth, but throughout his life our 16th president was a great fan of the performing arts and would frequently find comfort reading the words of William Shakespeare.

"I think nothing equals MACBETH," wrote the self-educated man from the frontiers of Kentucky and Indiana. Lincoln would learn reading, writing and oratory by memorizing Shakespeare's speeches and while leading the country during the bloodiest war in its history, he would turn to The Bard's words for solace and inspiration.

On Thursday, February 11th at 6:30pm, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will present one of the country's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era, Harold Holzer, in a program of dramatic readings and historic anecdotes titled LINCOLN's FAVORITE SHAKESPEARE.

He'll be joined by actors Blair Brown, Stephen Lang and Fritz Weaver, who will perform some of the president's best-loved Shakespearean scenes and soliloquies in between stories of his admiration for actors, attempts at theatrical criticism and impromptu Shakespearian recitation.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 5th Avenue and the performance will be held in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Tickets are priced at $45 and can be purchased at metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/harold-holzerlincoln