Boston Music Intelligencer REVIEW: Reveling in Anticipation of Winter

By Steve Landrigan for The Boston Music Intelligencer. Updated December 15, 2025.

Midwinter Revels arrived back at Sanders Theater this weekend bringing its trademark exuberance, along with much excellent music making and heart-warming story telling. This fixture on the Boston Christmas calendar has become the kind of beloved seasonal tradition that it celebrates.

Using the music and culture of Scandinavia, Revels shined a special light on the story of The Little Match Girl by Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen. Gregory Maguire has taken that sad, brief tale and imagined a backstory for the matchgirl. From that he also created a narrative about the boy who steals one of her shoes.

Maguire, world famous for his inspired riff on The Wizard of Oz that has become the Wicked franchise, published his reinvention of Andersen’s tale in 2009 as Matchless. Director Debra Wise has further adapted his story to fit the needs of the Revels. Assisted by dramaturg Nicole Galland, she seamlessly wove the story of the matchgirl, who remains nameless, and the boy, known here as Frederik, into the sturdy Revels fabric of the Mummer’s Play, the Morris dancing, the breath-taking Abbots Bromley Stag Dance and even the several times the audience is asked to join in the singing, and then when The Lord of the Dance takes them holding hands and dancing out of the theater to the stained-glass-ended Memorial Hall.

The singing was glorious, whether by the audience in the three-part Latin round, Dona nobis pacem, or the exquisitely sweet-toned chorus — all volunteers — who create rich harmonies in several Scandinavian songs.  Jul, Jul, Strålande Jul, a loving 1920 tribute to the winter world of Nordic Christmas by Swedish composer Gustav Nordqvist, sung by the women was particularly haunting. An Advent hymn composed in 1812 by another Swede, Anders Öhrwall, Bereden väg för herran, combined the men’s side of the chorus with the beautifully balanced Cambridge Brass Ensemble.

A notable a capella moment came with Heyr, Himna Smidur, with words by a 13^th-century Icelandic chieftain set to music by a 20^th-century composer, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson. As the music filled the darkened oak-paneled hall, choristers carried illuminated stars on poles. It produced the kind of magical moment at which Revels excels.

The dancing matched the precision and elan of the singing. With women in bonnets and long skirts and the men in heavy jackets and stocking caps, they formed in long lines, imitating a form of weaving that is full of surprises. In another scene, now dazzling in evening gowns, jewels and wigs, they danced something akin to a minuet for the queen. Choreographer Tom Roby, assisted by Laura Stern, devised gambols as natural as village folk doing daily chores and yet always exciting to watch.

This is a show that never stops. One song leads into another or to a dance or to the recitation of the beloved poem, The Shortest Day, written for the first Revels in 1971 by Susan Cooper. There’s magic afoot throughout, aided by theatrical sleights-of-hand. When the matchgirl sees a falling star, we all do, and we feel her anguish that perhaps it foretells an impending death.

The music is drawn from several cultures and written over many centuries. It has been lovingly arranged by Elijah Botkin and constantly catches the ear. Apart from the singers, Botkin can rely on excellent musicians to create the sounds he has imagined, from a brass band, an accordion, a small string section, not to mention a nyckelharpa, octavharpa and hardingfele.

As he has done for ages, David Coffin presided over these revels, lending a guiding hand as needed and encouraging audiences — which recently included Yo Yo Ma — to join in the merrymaking. His warm but commanding baritone put everyone at ease while gleefully insisting they follow his instructions.

He was ably assisted by a superb cast that includes Eliza Fichter as a heartbreaking Matchgirl, David Keohane as both an appealing Frederik and an imposing Hans Christian Andersen, Kristian Espiritu as Frederick’s dutiful mother and later as the frivolous Queen, and Joshua Wolf Coleman in several key roles but indelibly memorable as the Matchgirl’s father.

Their work wss enhanced by the spare but effective set by designer Jeremy Barnett, as well as the costumes by Heidi Hermiller, all soft warm tones for the peasants, and dazzling bright for the scenes at court. Jeff Adelberg’s light transformed the scene both instantly and subtly. All three of these professionals have been part of the Revels for many years and have clearly learned how to build on what the others are doing.

The brilliant direction of Debra Wise held it all together. With more than 50 performers on the modestly sized stage, absent wings or much of a backstage, she marshaled her troupes, sent them out in the aisles as needed, and drew them together to deliver a power-packed celebration of all the best aspects of this special season.

The audience takes part of the show as well. Members return year after year. When first-timers were asked to raise their hands just before the start of the show, very few hands went up. Revels for them may well be entertainment, but it also feels like a ritual on which they depend to mark the changing of the year. In one voice they wait for the moment near the end of where they can join together and shout “Welcome Yule.”

With so much uncertainly playing havoc with things we have long taken for granted, a visit to the Revels reassures that much of what is important remains to be celebrated.

Midwinter Revels runs through December 28^th.

Stephen Landrigan is a former print journalist and concert presenter.

Read this review on the Boston Music Intelligencer website here