A Prairie Home Companion Live Simulcast

A few weeks ago, while watching the previews before Avatar IMAX 3D, good friend Laura was paying a little more attention than I was, for I was too busy seeing if they were in 3D by flicking my 3D glasses in front of and away from my eyes (for the record, they are not in 3D), and expressed great interest in two of the previews: one for the Metropolitan Opera, and another for a live taping of A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by the inimitable and hilarious Garrison Keillor. Me being the wiseacre that I am, I told her I was really excited for the Celine Dion simulcast for later in March. Whether she was just ignoring my obvious jest or actually didn’t hear me is something that still causes me sleepless nights, though it was clarified later when she pleaded for me to not take her to see Celine Dion. Sometimes, I wonder if she has any taste whatsoever.

Now, A Prairie Home Companion, for those not in the know, is a long-running variety show broadcast weekly on public radio, combining skits, musical performances, monologues, and good ol’ fashioned Minnesotan dry wit. (It was made into a movie in 2006, and a very good movie at that, despite the presence of Lindsay Lohan, though Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Woody Harrelson more than made up for it.) Perhaps the most well-known segment is Keillor’s “The News From Lake Wobegon”, a fictional Minnesota town with “above average” residents. These monologues were collected into several books by Keillor, the first of which, Lake Wobegon Days, I discovered to my pleasant surprise that my mother happened to have sitting on the kitchen table, despite her being unaware that I had seen this simulcast. (Note to self: read this book.)

So. A few days before the show, I got two tickets in anticipation for the show, though I thought to myself at the time that tickets probably wouldn’t be necessary. This later turned out to be false, for there are apparently a great deal of PHC fans in the Doylestown area, and the theater was mostly full; as Laura and I are both in our mid- to late-20s, we were easily the youngest in attendance there by a good 15 years. (I wonder if this’ll be true as well when we end up getting tickets for the Met.) As we found some decent seats and settled in, Keillor was walking around St. Paul in a snowstorm, being generally dry and witty; he purchased a red tie, and gave the retail clerk a bit of good-natured grief when it turned out the tie wasn’t solid red, but had a beveled pattern that evidently Keillor didn’t like. He bought it anyway, and a bright red scarf (“Everyone should have a red scarf,” he deadpanned. “That way the emergency rescuers can find you in the snow.”) before he walked into the Fitzgerald Theater and the show began in earnest.

What followed was a two hour spectacle of radio plays and sublime musical performances, all rolled into a brilliant homespun package. Special guests Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele, Heather Masse, Robin and Linda Williams, and some guy named Elvis Costello all contributed vocally, either through song performances or as speaking parts in some very entertaining scripts: Guy Noir was there, of course, with the titular private detective having to share his desk with Costello, who played the part of a Cockney travel agent. Keillor and Erica Rhodes had a nice little exchange, but when Keillor announced Rhodes as the replacement host of PHC, Laura and I looked at each other, our jaws dropped and shock painted on our faces. Keillor retiring?! No! This cannot be! Of course, it was all a bit, as Rhodes, a sprightly young teenager, launched into a laundry list of improvements she would bring to the show, turning it from PHC into something more suitable for Nickelodeon. Later in the show, a script called “The Lives Of The Cowboys”, with one half of the sound effects department, Tom Keith, playing a clueless Swedish filmmaker directing a Western flick, got things nice and exciting when Keillor took control and turned it from the actionless script the director had envisioned it as, and it became a thing of beauty. Costello once again played the antagonist: a young British mining upstart who had eyes for Keillor’s character’s moll. Keillor challenged Costello to a gunfight, and naturally Costello lost; however, he delivered a very convincing death scene, where he chastised Keillor for killing his art.

The song performances were what I was looking forward to, of course, and with Costello on the bill – a fact I only discovered after I purchased the tickets (and I call myself a Costello fan…) – I knew we’d be in for a treat. Laura, meanwhile, wasn’t as excited as I was, as she’s not a Costello fan in the slightest… though I am trying to convert her. He played a rollicking rendition of Dave Bartholomew’s ‘That’s How You Got Killed Before’, with Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band really letting loose, before introducing a new number called ‘Jimmie Standing In The Rain’, a lovely acoustic song that apparently took place in, “oh, 1937 or something like that,” according to its songwriter. Other Costello performances included an amazing ‘Poisoned Rose’ and his old pub rock favorite, ‘Sneaky Feelings’. Naturally, I was singing along, and Laura turned to me and said, “Hey Georg, who sings this song?” Now, that’s my joke, something I once did to my sister when we both worked at the same restaurant; she was singing along to the radio, and when I asked her who sang the song, she replied, “Oh, it’s Evanescence!” “Yeah? Let’s keep it that way,” I retorted. So my response to Laura was, “I do!” That showed her.

Non-Costello performances included some lovely gospel tunes from the Steele sisters: ‘Joyful, Joyful’ and ‘Without A Song’, and while I’m not a church-goer and my theological beliefs are unorthodox, I do enjoy gospel music, and this was no exception. The Steele sisters have powerful voices, and they could have easily carried the tunes themselves a capella. In the folk and bluegrass vein, Robin and Linda Williams were joined by Keillor and Heather Masse (as well as guitarist Pat Donohue) on ‘Count Your Blessings’, ‘Walking Through Your Town In The Snow’, and ‘Calling My Children Home’, while Donohue got his own vocal spotlights with ‘Too Gone’ and ‘Whole Lotta You’. Perhaps my two favorite performances, though, were by Keillor and Masse, who duetted beautifully on ‘My Life’ and ‘If You Were Mine’.

Of course, there was “The News From Lake Wobegon”, with Keillor imparting a touching story about how he and his aunt had a disagreement a few years ago, and instead of talking about it and bringing up new problems, the people of the fictitious town just push the problems away. (That wasn’t quite as memorable as Keillor intoning, “Sex is always the answer. Well, that’s not entirely true; sometimes sex is the question, and yes is the answer.”) But it did make me think about my own problems – which are, admittedly, many these days – and how I should push them aside. If only it were that easy… but comedy that both entertains and makes me think?! However absurd!

The show ended with a rousing rendition of ‘Oh, Glory How Happy I Am’, with everyone (except Costello) onstage and singing along. Keillor, dressed in a suit, his red tie, and a pair of bright red shoes (while I’m aware of his particular style, I don’t know if he actually wears red sneaks all the time; perhaps this was a subtle nod to Costello and his song, ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes’?), walked down the aisle and out of the theater, the band still playing and the audience clapping along. He then walked into the cold Minnesota night, looked around at his surroundings, and sauntered off into the distance. A fitting end to a wonderful show.

Laura and I exited the theater into our own cold Pennsylvania night, grins on our faces as we discussed the finer points of the show. It was a great time, assisted by the company, of course; it’s nice to be able to go to these kinds of events and be able to have my mind taken off whatever’s going on in my life, even if it’s only for two hours. I really hope Keillor and PHC do this again. There’s something about the spectacle of seeing it all take place that’s interesting to me, though I am able to disconnect my mind and visualize it myself with just the sound. There I go being challenged again! Kudos to you, Keillor, and the entire Prairie Home Companion staff. Kudos.

Check out the A Prairie Home Companion website here. You can listen to this particular show here, or go to the encore presentation tonight. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, go onto iTunes and subscribe to “The News From Lake Wobegon” podcast. Or just buy some of Keillor’s books.