By David Greenham

The 2025 version of the Revels once again fills historic Sanders Theater with comedy and music, while at the same time encouraging us to reflect on the things that are important in life — family, love, and the peaceful solitude of a cold winter’s night.

Midwinter Revels: A Scandinavian Story for Christmas by Debra Wise, Patrick Swanson, and Nicole Galland, dramaturg. Inspired by Gregory Maguire’s Matchless. Directed by Debra Wise. Music direction by Elijah Botkin; assistant musical direction and children’s music direction by Sarah Higginbotham; choreography by Tom Roby; lighting design by Jeff Adelberg; set design by Jeremy Barnett; costume design by Heidi Hermiller; sound design by Brian McCoy. Staged by Revels, Inc at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge through December 28. After that, available online through January 11.

The Midwinter Revels Matchless Children’s Chorus. Photo: Paul Buckley

It takes a village, as they say, and for 55 years a village of creative theater folks and dedicated members of the community has created the annual Revels, a show that has become a cherished Boston tradition.

The 2025 version of the Revels once again fills historic Sanders Theatre with comedy and music, while at the same time encouraging us to reflect on the things that are important in life — family, love, and the peaceful solitude of a cold winter’s night.

The venerable David Coffin serves as the affable master of ceremonies, warmly welcoming audiences to the celebration. After this, the large cast of musicians, community singers, and a few professionals — nearly 70 performers in all — fill the stage with a delightful opening song and dance, “Nu Är Det Jul Igen” (“Now It Is Christmas Again”), a traditional Scandinavian folk song.

This year’s offering takes us to a mythical version of a Scandinavian coastal fishing village, where impoverished Frederick (David Keohane) lives with his mother in a shack attached to a herring smokehouse on a small island that’s connected to the mainland by a causeway.

Fredrick’s mother, Dame Pedersen (Kristian Espiritu), serves as the underpaid but in-demand seamstress for the Queen (also Espiritu). Her Majesty is so clumsy that she frequently steps on the hem of her dress; Dame Pedersen must make frequent visits to the castle to make emergency repairs. Often left alone, Frederick shows an active imagination, gathering scraps and old boxes to make himself a model village — he longs for others to live with him and his mother on their island.

On Christmas Eve, Dame Pedersen is called to the castle. Despite the dangers of the cold, dark night, Frederick ventures across the causeway to find something that could serve as a boat to ferry people to his toy village. While in the town, he spots Hans Christian Andersen’s Match Girl (Eliza Fichter), freezing. She hopes to sell a few matches and lights some to stay warm. In the Match Girl’s final moments, she is gently brought into the arms of her angelic mother. She leaves her slipper behind and Frederick discovers it — the perfect boat for his small village. Eventually, the vessel will help him realize his dream of populating the island.

The Midwinter Revels Northern Lights Dancers. Photo: Paul Buckley

The story for this year’s Revels is based on Concord author Gregory Maguire’s 2009 short story, Matchless, which was commissioned by NPR. Maguire’s 1995 book Wicked; The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West inspired the international hit Broadway musical Wicked and the two-part film version of the show. Maguire is a longtime fan of the Revels; one season he joined the company as a member of the chorus.

There are many wonderful moments in this year’s show, especially the Match Girl sequence, which ended with a beautifully meditative Swedish song, Koppångan. In it, the Match Girl rises into the arms of her mother — the lyrics end:

It is cold out here; the snow is white but I’m warm inside.
I am warm because I know that my faith will be my guide.

Each year’s Revels production excels at observing a pivotal time: the darkness of winter just before the explosion of light that comes with the new year. A resounding “Welcome Yule!” pays direct homage to the occasion — and the current offering nails it.

But the real highlight of the 2025 version of Revels lies in the tech. The reliable Jeff Adelberg has an admirable knack for lighting Sanders Theatre with atmospheric layers of color, and Brian McCoy’s sound is spot-on. But even higher accolades should go to Jeremy Barnett’s symmetrical dock-like set, Elizabeth Locke’s amusing, at times oversized prop pieces, and, best of all, Heidi Hermiller’s magnificent costumes. In Act One, Hermiller decks the large cast in wonderful Scandinavian garb.

Eliza Fichter as the Match Girl in Midwinter Revels. Photo: Paul Buckley

Act Two begins with the Queen’s fancy ball, and Hermiller delivers with a visual explosion of sparkly, multi-hued frolickers. There are too many to list: the group includes a bedazzled pirate, male and female jesters, a Roman emperor, a matador, Marie Antoinette, a Dutch maid, Robin Hood, a Swedish Midsummer maid, Sherlock Holmes, and the Pope (!).The ball also features a visit from Hans Christian Andersen himself (Keohane), who tells the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, aided by a member of the audience and wonderful cartoonish character placards.

The cast is consistently enjoyable, especially Eliza Fichter, who serves as the de facto narrator of the Frederick narrative. She brings a passionate urgency to her tale-telling, which helps the action move along more quickly.

The annual Mummers’ Play is fun and a little weird, as usual. The episode incorporates a dragon (Heather Korber Nunes), but this time around it cleverly pairs the beast with characters from Norse mythology, including Odin (Jake Nunes), Loki (Lillian Sosa), Valdemar (Joshua Wolf Coleman), and two Yule Goats (Vir Tellis and Ned Cheesman).

The production, which runs two hours and fifteen minutes with an intermission, ends with a visually stunning “Jul, Jul, Strålande Jul” (“Christmas, Christmas, Shining Christmas”) as the theater sparkles, an infusion of light and sound leading to the final celebration and wish for a blessed, bright new year.

The Revels provides an escape from the difficulties of the day, but this annual holiday musical extravaganza is also an invaluable reminder that — if we can hold on through the darkness — the light will eventually shine. A particularly reassuring sentiment given our current state of affairs.

David Greenham is an arts and culture consultant, adjunct lecturer on Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, and is the former executive director of the Maine Arts Commission. He can be found at https://davidgreenham.com/