Theater Reviews

Jun 20, 1999 - Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Companion" at Home in the High Sierras

By Jack Neal

Garrison Keillor's National Public Radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," played Reno's cavernous Lawlor Events Center Saturday afternoon (6/19/99) at 3:00 p.m., just in time to be heard live by the show's east-coast fans.

 And fans, for Keillor's "Prairie" show, are aplenty. Close to three million small-town-souls-at-heart tune in each week to catch the homespun yarn telling Keillor's so very good at doling out. Just under 6000 adoring fans turned out locally to catch one of radio's few, perhaps only, extensively produced shows as shows were produced in radio's heyday. Keillor's easy charm and brilliant wit, the program's kicky, Old West Reno sketches and the extensive talents of the "Prairie Home Companion" team made this outing with the live stuff pleasurable enough to earn a standing ovation from Saturday's huge crowd.

 If shows at their best are more than the sum of their parts, seeing "A Prairie Home Companion" live proves the reverse can also be true. When experienced in person, a two hour encounter with the show's obvious charms, translates to something less than two hours of knock 'em dead entertainment. But, then, laid back is what Keillor is aiming for for radio listeners, and what Keillor aims for he hits with one bull's eye after another.

 Along with Keillor, also to be adored (Keillor fans are into adoration) are the many voices of the extraordinarily multi-faceted talents of Tim Russell and Sue Scott, the cast along with sound effects man Tom Keith, that makes the Keillor show a smash hit of imaginative non-visualized (except in the imagination and in person) showmanship. Russell's cowpoke out for a good time, Scott's Miss Nude World 1999 out to get married, Keith's crashing of two locomotives head on, and Keillor's script that picks up so humorously on Reno's casino driven, divorce maintained and marriage chapelled mystique were as funny as they were deftly accurate. "Reno's the place," Keillor's rich, funereal bass-baritone intoned, "where good people go to do the things they can't do at home."

 "And now from Utah - a very different state - Kirkmount!" Coming on the heels of his Reno incantation, that superb bit of timing was Keillor's way of introducing harpist Alex Bigney (18), fiddler Sam Bigney (17) and cellist Simeon Bigney (15), Celtic music players and winners of "A Prairie Home Companion's" Third Annual "Talent from Towns Under 2,000" contest. Jigs, waltzes and other Celtic pleasures are the boys' specialties and they're terrific.

 Singer, guitarist, kazooist, folk-song specialist Geoff Muldaur in tandem with juggist and washtub bassist Fritz Richmond, were on board and they, too, were terrific. An integral part of the "Home Companion" team, The Guys All-Star Shoe Band (pianist and vocalist Richard Dworsky, violinist Andy Stein, guitarist Pat Donohue, bassist Greg Hippen, percussionist Arnie Kinsella) work in such close harmony with Keillor's needs and whims, it's unimaginable that "A Prairie Home Companion" would work as smoothly and entertainingly without this glued-to-the-star assemblage.

 But ultimately, it's Keillor - the writer-star who delivers lines with a knowing Midwest nonchalance - who makes "Prairie Companion" so companionable for millions of weekly radio listeners. He's a master at orchestrating the show, something that's more obvious in person, than over the airways. Keillor's sharp, glib wit - much of it written, much of it extemporized - has made this American Everyman show a hit across the millennia that belies today's quick-bite world.

 The show's warm-up, Keillor leading a sing-along of "America the Beautiful" and "Home on the Range," hinted at what was to come. "Just wanted to make sure," Keillor quipped, "you were our audience." Then it was off to the show's weekly letters-from-home segment with its seat-of-the-pants Wobegonisms: "Dear Mom and Dad, We're finding that the slots are paying off almost as well as our fine arts degrees." The monologue and all the other asides and additions that makes Keillor such an intriguing presence were all smartly packaged and casually in place: "The basis for remaining calm in a crisis," Keillor sniffed, "is not knowing all the facts." And, my favorite, "Brain cells come and go, but fat cells are forever."

 Also seemingly "forever" is the popularity of Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." And, why not? It's an all American show that's as comfortable as old shoes, lip-smackin' good as mom's apple pie and as cleverly entertaining as Fred Allen's late 1940's "Allen's Alley." Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" celebrates its silver anniversary with its July 3rd broadcast.

 "A Prairie Home Companion" is produced by Minnesota Public Radio and can be heard in the Reno-Sparks listening area at 6 p.m. on Saturdays and noon on Sundays on KUNR-FM, 88.7. "A Prairie Home Companion" was brought to Reno's Lawlor Events Center by KUNR-FM. For more information about KUNR events and programming call 775 327 5867.