“A Prairie Home Companion” creator Garrison Keillor will perform at The Park Theatre, 19 Main St. in Jaffrey, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., with tickets going on sale Thanksgiving Day.
“Garrison Keillor Tonight” is an evening of stand-up, storytelling, audience song and poetry. There are sung sonnets, limericks and musical jokes, and the thread that runs through it is the beauty of growing old. The show includes the News from Lake Wobegon, a town booming with new entrepreneurs, makers of artisanal firewood and gourmet meatloaf, breeders of composting worms and dogs trained to do child care.
But some things endure, such as the formation of the Living Flag on Main Street, citizens in tight formation wearing red, white or blue caps and Keillor among them, standing close to old neighbors Myrtle Krebsbach (“Truckstop”) and Julie Christensen (“Bruno, The Fishing Dog”) and Clint Bunsen. An a-cappella singalong includes the audience singing from memory a medley of patriotic songs, pop standards and hymns, ending with the national anthem.
Keillor conceived, produced and performed “A Prairie Home Companion” for 40 years, wrote fiction and comedy and invented a town called Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average. In retirement, he has written a memoir and a book of limericks, and is at work on a musical and a Lake Wobegon screenplay. He continues to do “The Writers Almanac,” sent out daily to Internet subscribers for free.
Grove Street Fiduciary of Peterborough will sponsor The Park Theatre’s “Garrison Keillor Tonight.”
Tickets will be $60 (orchestra), $50 (lower mezzanine) and $40 (upper mezzanine). They can be purchased in advance starting Nov. 24 by visiting theparktheatre.org or calling the box office 603-532-8888.