The 47th Annual Christmas Revels Travels To Venice at Harvard's Sanders Theatre

Celebrate the season with family and friends at the 47th annual Christmas Revels!

A holiday tradition for nearly five decades, The Christmas Revels is a joyful theatrical celebration of the winter solstice that travels the world each year showcasing cultural traditions including music, dance, folktales and rituals. This year's holiday treat takes us to Renaissance Venice, crossroads of the world!

WHO LET THE DOGE OUT?

2017 Christmas Revels Synopsis: The Doge of Venice has had it. It is time for the solstice and the Feast of the Seven Fishes and everyone wants his opinion - merchants, lawyers, politicians, artists, even the fishwives want him to rule on who makes the best spaghetti Bolognese. So he is going to take a little unauthorized vacation and meet some of his more lowly subjects. The wild adventures ahead involve reckless actors, jailbreaks, itinerant musicians, English Morris men and maybe even the Spanish Armada! A beloved holiday tradition since 1971, The Christmas Revels features luscious music, tricky sets and gorgeous costumes, superb musical guests, a tuneful, dancing chorus, some familiar Revels touchstones, and street kids who sing like angels.

Our 100-member ensemble includes musician and song leader David Coffin, The Revels Chorus of adults and children, a brilliant group of vocalists and musicians from the Early Music community (Sophie Michaux, Gideon Crevoshay, Lysander Jaffe, Daniel Meyers, Simon Martyn-Ellis, Nathaniel Cox, and Fabio Pirozzolo), The Serenissima Dancers, our acting troupe, Commedia Buffo (old friends Noni Lewis, Billy Meleady, Mark Jaster and Sabrina Selma Mandell), and Richard Snee as the Doge. The Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble and The Pinewoods Morris Men also join us onstage at Sanders this year. Besides the carols and rounds we'll ask you to sing, performance highlights include the Bal do Sabre, an Italian Sword Dance, plus familiar Revels touchstones like the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, Susan Cooper's classic poem, The Shortest Day, and our signature piece, Lord of the Dance, which will literally have you dancing in the aisles!

The Christmas Revels design team includes Jeremy Barnett, set design; Heidi A. Hermiller, costume design; Jeff Adelberg, lighting design; William Winn, sound design and Kelli Edwards, choreographer.

Preview Performance: Dec. 8 @ 7:30 pm - Special Pricing: All tickets $44 or less!

Value Pricing (4 shows only): Dec. 9 @ 3:00 pm & 7:30 pm; Dec. 10 @ 1:00 pm and 5:30 pm

Adults $65, $56, $42 and $25 (partial view); Children 11 and under: $45, $38, $30 and $13 (partial view)

Standard Pricing (all other performances): Adults: $75, $66, $48 and $27 (partial view); Children 11 and under: $50, $42, $32 and $15 (partial view)

ORDER TICKETS ONLINE through a link at www.revels.org, BY PHONE at 617-496-2222 (Tue-Sun 12-6pm) or IN-PERSON at the Harvard Box Office at Farkus Hall, 10 Holyoke Street, near Harvard Square (Tue-Sun 12-6pm).

GROUP SALES: Groups of 15+ Call 617-972-8300 x22 or email Alan at acasso@revels.org

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Sound Design - Top 3

1. Adam Fisher - The Lost Boys

30.2% of votes

2. John Shivers - Chess

15.5% of votes

3. Tony Gayle - Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

8.1% of votes

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