Judith Owen and Harry Shearer

Like a lot of people, my opinion of the holiday season teeters between fondness and revulsion. Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart had me positively giddy that Christmas was around the corner. Then I went to Best Buy last week and wished Jesus was never born. Judith Owen and Harry Shearer know the feeling. For the last few years, the married music/comedy duo has led holiday sing-a-longs that celebrate both the warmth and the awfulness of the season. There could hardly be a better pairing for this. The British-born Owen possesses equal parts wit and musicality—imagine a female Randy Newman, only much prettier. Shearer, famed for This Is Spinal Tap and his voices on The Simpsons, is a rare breed of funnyman—intelligent, hilarious, creative, and musically gifted. (Lucky bastard.) In their hands, certain holiday songs are treated tenderly, and others satirically. And as with any good Christmas gathering, you in the audience will be forced to join in, whether you like it or not. BRIAN J. BARR
Mon., Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m., 2009