A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Special Guests
Saturday, December 4, 1999

Walter Bobbie directed the current revival of "Chicago," which earned him a 1997 Tony Award for Best Director, and continues to tour the country. Bobbie is also an actor with a long list of Broadway and off-Broadway credits. He received a Drama Desk nomination for his performance as Nicely­Nicely Johnson in "Guys and Dolls." Other New York credits include "Assassins," "Getting Married," "Anything Goes," "Café Crown," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Up From Paradise," "I Love My Wife," "A History of the American Film," "Dames At Sea," and the original "Grease." He has appeared on numerous television shows and in films including "Edie and Pen," Stephen King’s "Thinner," and "The First Wives’ Club." Bobbie is also a director whose all­star "Fiorello! In Concert" premiered the Encores! series at City Center. Bobbie conceived and directed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "A Grand Night for Singing" at the Roundabout Theatre; directed Christopher Durang’s "Durang, Durang," six one-act plays at the Manhattan Theater Club; and worked with Andrea Martin on her one-woman show "Nude Nude Totally Nude."

Actress and singer Faith Prince has played many roles on Broadway, including her Tony Award-winning turn as Miss Adelaide in Broadway’s 1992 revival of "Guys and Dolls." She has also given acclaimed performances in "The King and I," "Jerome Robbins’ Broadway," "Falsettoland," and "Little Shop of Horrors." She has also appeared in New York and Washington DC in productions of "Fiorello," "DuBarry Was a Lady," and "Bells Are Ringing." She was most recently seen on Broadway in last year’s "Little Me," with Martin Short. Dramatic performances include leading roles in Terrence McNally’s "Bad Habits" and Donald Margulies’ "What’s Wrong with This Picture." In concert, she has performed "Hey Love: The Songs of Mary Rodgers" at both Carnegie Hall and at Rainbows and Stars, and she recently made her club debut with "A Leap of Faith" at Joe’s Pub in New York. Prince has been featured in films such as "Dave" and "My Father the Hero," and in the television series "Frasier" and "High Society," as well as her current recurring role as Claudia Sacks, Paul Lassiter’s ever-patient girlfriend on ABC’s "Spin City." In September, she appeared in "Carnegie Hall Celebrates Betty Comden & Adolph Green," and in December she will be seen on television in the PBS Great Performances production, "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies," and in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s "Season For Miracles" on CBS. Prince is accompanied this evening by pianist Joseph Thalken.

Butch Thompson is well­remembered for his 12­year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, dating back to the show’s second broadcast in July 1974. In 1978, The Butch Thompson Trio was formed for the show and was the house band until 1986. Thompson’s interest in jazz began during his childhood in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, where he discovered the piano at age three. As a teenager, he led his first band (Shirt Thompson and his Sleeves), and played his first professional engagements on both piano and clarinet. In 1962, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band on clarinet and began a series of pilgrimages to New Orleans, where he studied with clarinetist George Lewis and became one of the few non-Orleanians to guest occasionally at Preservation Hall. By the early ’70s, his recordings on both instruments were noticed abroad, and he toured Europe and Australia. Thompson’s first recording, "Butch Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Piano Solos," has been re-issued as a Biograph CD, and he has released nine CDs in his solo series, "Thompson Plays Joplin" (Daring/Rounder Records). As a soloist, Thompson has long been regarded as a leading traditional jazz musician. More recently, he has put together an eight-piece group called the New Orleans Jazz Originals.