Wednesday, 18-Dec-13

Terese gave me a call a few weeks back, asking if I was interested in seeing a musical in Harvard Square about the Christmas Story of, or more accurately the Christmas traditions of, the Spanish countryside.

Well I have a rule about concerts and shows – Yes. If I’m free, I’ll do my best to make it no matter what, and this case actually sounded pretty awesome. See, we’d be meeting up in Harvard Square early evening, and then hunting down some kind of dinner after the show.

“Sounds like an adventure, so I am 100% in!”

We met up in Harvard Square around 7:00, and walked over to wait in the lobby for a bit, since the doors opened at 7:30. Then we sat; Terese had gotten amazing seats – right on the upper balcony, directly against the edge, so we could lean onto the banisters and get a perfect view. And then the show began!

• It was actually a sort of retelling of Don Quixote… sort of. At no point did they directly reference the play, but the main character was “everyman”, an iterant knight followed by his squire, a man named “Sancho”. They were also accompanied by “Esperanza”, a barmaid who “Everyman” was convinced was an angel. Seeing the similarities?
• The music was traditional Christmas tunes… but not American or English – definitely Spanish. I enjoyed it a lot, especially since they threw some ancient rituals in as well, such as the dance of the stags; a traditional Iberian hunting dance.
• There was also a bit of audience participation, a-la Rocky Horror. Though this was a bit tamer; instead of shooting squirt guns into the audience, we sang along, danced, and cheered in time with the cast. It was fun; though a bit confusing at times.

But it was definitely awesome, and I enjoyed everything about the play. I wish I had known a bit more about the participation parts, so that I could have danced along a bit more, but that’s for next year I guess.

The show got out a lot later than we expected though, and I learned something about Harvard Square; things close. At like 10:00.

So when you get out of a show at 10:45, and get to where you wanted to have dinner at 11:05? Yeah… you’re gonna have a bad time.

Or at least you’re going to have to walk around a bit until you find somewhere open. Which we did, and Terese and I finished up the adventure, with a pot roast and a hamburger respectively.