All I Want for Christmas Is 700 Billion Dollars: Our 50th Noel

While I can't speak for the entirety of humanity, in my experience a lot of things (daylight savings, income tax time, mortality) have a tendency to sneak up on a soul, and the holidays are a case in point. Travel by car or air, enforced proximity to loved ones, and a general air of taking stock generally lead to...well, hopefully nothing too embarrassing this year. It's all about ritual, after all, and little signposts on the road we all travel. And speaking of which, the Brave New Workshop's holiday show is a near-ideal diversion from all the sentiment and white-knuckle pressure that accompanies the holidays for the grownups among us. They tweak it every year in light of current events (a couple of things have happened since last year, it seems), but I'll lay money that the mothers are still shrieking and the fathers are still angry. Life goes on, but traditions endure. $25-$27. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday. 2605 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.332.6620. Through January 10, 2009
Thursdays, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 7 & 10 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Starts: Nov. 28. Continues through Jan. 4, 2008