PHC Makes Good TV

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on February 4, 2010 - 10:55pm

 

A Prairie Home Companion
Live HD Simulcast
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Great Barrington, Mass.
February 4, 2010
 
 
by Seth Rogovoy
 
 
Turns out A Prairie Home Companion makes a pretty good TV variety show, too.
 
 
The long-standing public radio show, hosted by Garrison Keillor, is an old-fashioned variety show, shamelessly hawking nostalgia--indeed, nostalgia for simple times makes up a lot of the actual content of the skits, patter, and songs on the program.
 
 
But in a 21st-century version screened live in high definition video at the Mahaiwe last night, the program proved that it has great visual appeal, too, only beginning with Keillor’s rubbery, expressive face, and show’s quaint stage set onstage at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
 
Last night’s program featured rock singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, who if at one time represented the future of rock ‘n’ roll, has long since become its present and past, and revealed himself to be a charming entertainer with an eclectic musical palette that blended in just fine with PHC’s homespun country and gospel verities. Costello wasn’t just a musical guest artist, either; he participated in several skits and acquitted himself marvelously as an actor. In fact, it made one wonder why he hasn’t done time on the silver screen.
 
 
While Costello played a few less well-known country, folk, and jazz-influenced tunes of his own, he blasted the show into the stratosphere after a poignant but somewhat bleak “News from Lake Wobegon” with a version of his early R&B hit, “Sneaky Feelings.”

 

 

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