(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in The New York Times, 12/10.)
This is the most un-wonderful time of the year for people allergic to Christmas music, like those poor creatures who begin wheezing whenever the “Hallelujah” chorus starts up once again.
Souls thus afflicted might consider the antidote on offer from the Collegiate Chorale on Monday and Tuesday at Carnegie Hall: an oratorio with the promisingly Handel-flouting handle of “Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy).” This opus is descended from the 1979 Monty Python movie “Life of Brian,” and has been packaged for the concert hall by John Du Prez and that most indefatigable of Pythons, Eric Idle, with Ted Sperling conducting and directing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/theater/an-oratorio-inspired-by-monty-python.html?_r=0