ST. PAUL, Minn. — Virginia Madsen is one of the stars of “A Prairie Home Companion,” but she still feels left out.

“I am, like, the only one who doesn’t get to sing,” Madsen said in the middle of the movie’s shoot last July at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater. With musicians practicing in the background and singers Robin and Linda Williams preparing to perform a number with Garrison Keillor onstage, Madsen said, “It’s like this all the time. The first time I walked in this building, Meryl [Streep] and Lily [Tomlin] were onstage singing ‘My Minnesota Home.’ ”

Madsen — whose mysterious character is one of the few in the film who is not a part of the radio show — is not the only one who will be surprised by how much music there is in “Prairie Home.” The film is light on plot and heavy on performances from Streep, Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, the Williamses, local diva Jearlyn Steele, the cowboy duo of Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, Keillor, veteran L.Q. Jones and an almost wall-to-wall backdrop from the radio show’s beloved All-Star Shoe Band. There’s so much music that the film’s soundtrack is a double-disc CD, and it’s still not all on there.

“The songs didn’t arrive with the script, so I didn’t know what they would be, but the music was an appealing part of it,” says Streep, whose songs include a Minnesota-ized version of “Swanee River,” as well as a duet with Keillor on the Carter Family standard, “Gold Watch and Chain.” “And, because I’m lazy, what I really liked was I didn’t think the singing had to be really good. It had to be adequate, was all.”

Keillor says “adequate” is not the word for Streep, and those who’ve seen her belt out the final number in her movie “Postcards From the Edge” know what he’s talking about. “Meryl Streep is just a terrific singer. I was astonished,” says Keillor, adding, “Lindsay Lohan … didn’t think she was a singer, but, when it came time to do her song, she knocked it out of the park.”

Some songs in the film are new compositions, but most are the sorts of traditional bluegrass, folk and gospel songs that have been performed on the “Prairie Home” radio show since Keillor created it 37 years ago, modeling it on the Grand Ole Opry. The homey, nostalgic songs balance the sadness of the film, which is about the fictional last performance of the program.

“I wanted my mother to see this movie. She would have loved this movie,” says Tomlin, whose mom died during filming last summer. “She was in her 90s, and she would always say things to me like, in ‘Flirting With Disaster,’ for instance, ‘I don’t know why you have to take drugs and get up on a bed and pretend you’re having sex with Alan Alda.’ So this would have been her cup of tea, with ‘In the Sweet By and By’ and those songs.”

Fans of the radio show may miss Keillor’s stories about life in the mythical Lake Wobegon, which is never mentioned in the film, but they’ll probably enjoy the fictional look at what goes on behind the scenes at a radio show. Especially since some of the stuff — like a daring scene in which Keillor keeps telling a story up until the second the curtain goes up and the radio show begins — is based on reality.

“Walking onstage talking is a little bit of radio bravado,” Keillor explains with a chuckle, adding he has learned to switch gears faster than you can say “Powdermilk Biscuits.” “You do it sometimes to show off: ‘How far can I carry on this conversation about what restaurant we should go to after the show?’ And then — ‘Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, on “A Prairie Home Companion.” ’ ”

The radio show’s 4 million listeners are considered a prime audience for the film. But the thinking is that the down-home music can help “Prairie Home” attract people who don’t often go to the movies. Anyway, that’s what Bob Berney, president of the film’s distributor, is counting on.

“The bottom line is that it’s really fun to see these actors singing. I think fans of the [radio] show will love it, but it goes beyond that. There’s an audience that wants films that are not the typical R-rated violence,” Berney says. “It’s an audience that really goes to movies if the movies are there. I think Hollywood sometimes forgets them.”

A ‘PHC’ FAQ

Q: What’s “A Prairie Home Companion” about?

A: It’s set almost entirely during the fictional last broadcast of a radio show that resembles “A Prairie Home Companion” in almost every respect, except that Garrison Keillor’s popular radio show is not ending. Director Robert Altman says the film is about death — of at least one character, of the show and of the Fitzgerald Theater, where nearly all of the movie was shot last summer.

Q: I’m a Robert Altman fan. Is the movie like his other roots-music-based film, “Nashville”?

A: “Prairie Home” and “Nashville” share an abundance of music but not much else. “Prairie Home” is a more modest film than the big-themed “Nashville.” You could think of it as mostly a concert film, with lots of peppy music to distract you from the fact that it’s about saying goodbye.

Q: Lindsay Lohan, huh?

A: Yes. She reportedly begged Altman to put her in the film, so Garrison Keillor, who created the radio show 37 years ago and wrote the screenplay, wrote a part for her. And she’s good, belting out a song and nailing an emotional moment with Keillor. Altman has said he has concerns about the young moviegoers she attracts: “Lindsay Lohan may bring in a few [14-year-olds], but they’re not going to go back from it with good word of mouth.”

Q: I don’t listen to “A Prairie Home Companion” on the radio. Will I be lost at the movie?

A: Actually, it may be better to go into the film without preconceptions, since fans of the radio show might miss some elements of the program that didn’t make the film, including stories about the fictional Lake Wobegon. The movie doesn’t presuppose that you know anything about the radio show, although many staples of the show pop up — fake ads from the Ketchup Advisory Board, bluegrass music, corny jokes. Folks who have seen the show live will recognize the band, many of the musical performers (including Robin and Linda Williams, Jearlyn Steele and Butch Thompson) and regular cast members Tom Keith, who does his musical sound effects; Tim Russell, who plays the show’s stage manager; and Sue Scott, who plays a makeup woman.

Q: Why does a radio show need a makeup woman?

A: That’s a very good question.

— St. Paul Pioneer Press