Garrison Keillor News

'It's cold here,' John Berryman wrote in one of hisDream Songs. 'The cold is ultimating. The cold is cold.' As our winter of frigid discontent winds down, I'm pulling spring toward me like a quilt by starting Poetry Month early.

This week, March 10-19, Joe's Pub at the Public will feature Rory O'Malley, Shannon McNally, Lera Lynn, Benjamin Walker, Mortality Play, Joey Arias Experience, An Evening with Irving Berlin, Justin Vivian Bond, Flamenco Festival 2014, Martha Graham Cracker, Sarah Kay, Banda Magda String Orchestra, Lo Jo, The Meeting with Justin Sayre, Public Forum: Tevye and Chava, Mike Daisey, Winged Victory for the Sullen, John Cameron Mitchell & Holly Hunter, and Paul Loren. Scroll down for details!

MAUDE MAGGART - the acclaimed vocalist, made her debut at the Cafe Carlyle with a special engagement from February 25 to March 1. Check out photos from the engagement below!

Ravinia's 2014 season, dubbed 'Summer of Love/Season of Stars,' was announced today by Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. Brimming with talent and romance, the festival's 2014 schedule brings some the biggest names in the world of music as well as repertoire that explores the theme of great love in its various manifestations. No fewer than three musical incarnations of the most famous love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet, will be featured, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky's Overture-Fantasy (July 27), a suite from Prokofiev's ballet setting of the story (July 16) and the score of West Side Story as the classic film is shown (July 17-18). In other examples of love, soprano Deborah Voigt describes it as 'Something Wonderful' on a Broadway evening (July 13), the legendary Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe will be celebrated (July 20), and Chanticleer even jabs at the battle of the sexes in an evening titled 'She Said/He Said' (July 6). In fact, love lurks, longs and lingers across genres in most of the more than 130 events that Ravinia will present in 2014, its 110th year and its 78th as the summer residence of the CSO.

Fathom Events, National Theatre Live (NT Live) and BY Experience have come together again to broadcast the National Theatre's original stage production of 'War Horse,' pre-recorded live from London's West End, for only one night in cinemas across the country tonight, Feb. 27 at 7:00 p.m. local time. Based on Michael Morpurgo's novel and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford, 'War Horse' takes audiences on a journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of France during World War I. Filled with stirring music and songs, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness. At its heart are astonishing life-size puppets by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to life on stage.

Tony Award-nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Drama Desk-nominees Chip Zien (Into the Woods, Falsettos) & Karen Mason (Sunset Boulevard, Mamma Mia!), Sebastian Arcelus (Elf, A Time to Kill), Nightlife Award-Winner Mark Nadler, Jillian Louis, Danny Gardner and the Broadway by the Year Chorus have been added to Town Hall's 14th season opener of its Broadway by the Year Series on Monday, February 24 at 8pm, THE BROADWAY MUSICALS OF 1915-1939. They join previously announced Tony Award-winners Tonya Pinkins and Beth Leavel, Tony Award-nominees Carolee Carmello, Stephanie J. Block, Karen Akers and Emily Skinner, Drama Desk Award-nominee Julia Murney, Grammy Award-winners Lari White and John Easterlin, Noah Racey (Curtains), Camille Saviola (Nine), concert and recording artist Howard Fishman and Nightlife Award-winner Carole J. Bufford. Individual tickets ($57 and $47) are on sale at www.TicketMaster.com or by phone at 800-982-2787; series subscriptions ($180-$220) are available at www.TheTownHall.org.

The Logan Center Penthouse Salon Series returns with lauded cabaret performer KT Sullivan tonight, February 15, 2014, at 8pm (doors at 7:30pm). Guests are invited to arrive at 7:30pm for a pre-show reception to enjoy light refreshments and fellow guests.

Fathom Events, National Theatre Live (NT Live) and BY Experience have come together again to broadcast the National Theatre's original stage production of 'War Horse,' pre-recorded live from London's West End, for only one night in cinemas across the country on Thursday, February 27. For the first time ever, a broadcast from National Theatre Live will be shown at New York City's legendary Ziegfeld Theatre (141 West 54th Street) on February 27th at 7:00 p.m. The broadcast can also be seen in New York at Cinema 123 (1001 3rd Avenue) with encore dates/times to follow.

MAUDE MAGGART - the acclaimed vocalist hailed as 'singular and arresting' by the New York Times, 'wonderful' by Business Week and 'ingenious' by the Village Voice - will make her debut at the Cafe Carlyle with a special engagement from February 25 to March 1. Her new show 'The Door Opened' will feature numbers by golden-age songwriters Irving Berlin ('I Used To Be Color Blind'), Harry Warren ('Serenade In Blue') and Dorothy Fields ('Blue Again'), in addition to rarely-heard songbook gems including 'Why Am I So Romantic?' (introduced in the legendary Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers) and 'I May Be Wrong, But I Think You're Wonderful' (performed by Maude's grandmother). The evening will feature Music Director John Boswell on piano. She will preview the Carlyle run with two performances at the Gardenia in Los Angeles on February 14 and 15.

The Howard County Arts Council, in its 33rd year of service to the public of Howard County, presents the 17th Annual Celebration of the Arts in Howard County on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College (HCC), Columbia, MD. Dr. Kathleen Hetherington, President of HCC, will serve as Honorary Chair. Richard W. Story, Senior Vice President for Marketing, JPB Enterprises, Inc. will emcee the event. The Celebration is a multi-faceted signature event, showcasing and promoting the arts and raising funds in support of the arts, artists, and arts organizations in Howard County. One of the highlights of the 2014 Celebration is the Rising Star Emerging Performing Artist Award Competition, in which ten finalists will compete for a cash prize of $5,000. In December, individual performing artists - aged 18 to 35 years and currently or recently living, working, performing regularly, or receiving training in Howard County - auditioned before a panel of professionals in their discipline. Review criteria included artistic merit, demonstrated experience in the arts, and commitment to a career in the arts.

The Logan Center Penthouse Salon Series returns with lauded cabaret performer KT Sullivan on Saturday, February 15, 2014, at 8pm (doors at 7:30pm). Guests are invited to arrive at 7:30pm for a pre-show reception to enjoy light refreshments and fellow guests.

The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company announces its 2014 Cape May Mainstage Season. As usual, it includes classic gems, a world premiere, and a radio show. This year's theme is 'What is legal?'

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the launch of a two-year, $1 million campaign to establish the Cage Cunningham Fund for artist fellowships, named after legendary artistic partners John Cage and Merce Cunningham.

On Monday, February 24 at 8pm, Town Hall will kick-off the 14th season of its Broadway by the Year Series with THE BROADWAY MUSICALS OF 1915-1939 which will feature Tony Award-winners Tonya Pinkins and Beth Leavel, as well as Tony Award-nominees Carolee Carmello, Stephanie J. Block, Karen Akers, and Emily Skinner, Drama Desk Award-nominees Aaron Lazar, Julia Murney and Kerry O'Malley, Grammy Award-winner Lari White, and Noah Racey (Curtains), Camille Saviola (Nine), concert and recording artist Howard Fishman and Nightlife Award-winner Carole J. Bufford. Individual tickets ($57 and $47) are on sale at www.TicketMaster.com or by phone at 800-982-2787; series subscriptions ($180-$220) are available at www.TheTownHall.org. Bank of America is proud to support Broadway by the Year with additional support provided by The Edythe Kenner Foundation.

The Fox Theatre presents host/producer Garrison Keillor & friends live at the Fox Theatre for the popular weekly radio broadcast, A Prairie Home Companion on June 14 at 4:45 p.m.

Next month as a part of their Black History Month celebration, The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) along with the World Music Institute will offer a special concert from Grammy Award-winning African music star Angelique Kidjo on February 15 at 8pm (co-presented by the World Music Institute). This concert marks the New York stop of her new album release tour. The album, Eve, is being released later this month on 1/28.

New theatre in San Diego to watch this weekend!

History Theatre will once again partner with the Minnesota History Center to present four staged readings of new scripts that are currently being developed by Minnesota artists. This year's RAW STAGES New Works Festival will include a revised script by Eric 'Pogi' Sumangil about Minnesota's Filipino community (Debutante Ball), along with three newly commissioned scripts from Carlyle Brown (Boundary Waters), Jeffrey Hatcher and Chan Poling (Glensheen), and Garrison Keillor (Radio Man).

Tickets will go on sale beginning Mon, Dec 16, NOON for a newly scheduled second performance of Echoes of History: Osmo Vänskä & the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. Order your tickets online, or call U of M Tickets and Events at 612-624-2345.

On sale alert! Tickets will go on sale beginning Mon, Dec 16, 10:00 am for Daniel O'Donnell. Order your tickets online, or call U of M Tickets and Events at 612-624-2345, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Mon - Fri.