David Wilcox, AUBURN – When Jimmy Webb takes a seat at his piano on the Main Stage of Auburn Public Theater this Saturday, he’ll be the first national act to perform at the downtown venue in about 20 months.

Webb is a “consummate songwriter,” said Angela Daddabbo, the theater’s artistic director. His resume includes hits like “MacArthur Park,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Up, Up and Away,” as well as three Grammy Awards and induction into more than five music halls of fame. He’s also released more than a dozen albums of his own, most recently 2019’s “SlipCover.”

Still, Auburn Public Theater didn’t purposefully book Webb to be its first big name since COVID-19 forced it and other performing arts venues to pause their programming beginning in March 2020. He’s one of several artists who were scheduled to perform there before the pandemic, then repeatedly had to postpone as it continued. His Saturday show is just the first that wasn’t postponed.

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