REVIEW: The Best Christmas Show in 3 Years

The Brave New Workshop has three years’ worth of pent-up holiday cheer, and this year is going to be one to remember! The Twin Cities’ funniest holiday tradition returns for the first time since 2019 with The Best Christmas Show in Three Years, a hilarious collection of sketches and songs that promise to fit three Christmases into one stocking. If the last two years left you feeling like something was missing from your holidays, the Brave New Workshop is back and ready to fill the void!

Did you even realize how long it had been since the last BNW Christmas show?  Was your first reaction upon reading this to turn to your partner and say, “That can’t be right; we definitely went to the holiday show last year, right?  Wait, what year is it again??”  All I say, you’re not alone!  The Brave New Workshop actually has two post-COVID shows under its belt, so it was primed for the triumphant return of its annual holiday extravaganza!  The BNW holiday show is just the thing to close out this roller coaster year.    If you’ve felt drained by the way this year seemed to tee up apocalyptic dread on the reg, this holiday show puts the politics and polarizing news topics aside in favor of laughs targeted at family dynamics, holiday burnout, and comedic song lyrics.  The result is a wonderful way to celebrate the season, get in some good belly laughs, and revisit the pre-COVID, pre-Trump good ol’ days when your greatest concern was how to prevent your mom from getting baked off the pot-laced fruitcake you brought to help your siblings cope with your uncle’s rants.  The first show back from COVID was one of my all-time favorites, but if ever a show was designed to meet the moment, this might be the one.  I’ve been to a fair number of BNW productions and this was the first that I can recall to receive a standing ovation!

TAKE NOTE: the holiday show last night was sold out (pretty unusual this far before Thanksgiving) and  given the pent-up demand for a return to normalcy, demand for these tickets is going to be very strong).  If you snooze on buying tickets, you will definitely lose!

The Best Christmas Show in Three Years is playing at the Dudley Riggs Theatre in Minneapolis through January 28, 2023. Tickets start at $35.