1 This year's faster, funnier "I Saw Daddy Marry Santa Claus" breathes new life into Brave New Workshop's annual holiday show. Enlivened by the return of the crowd-pleasing "12 Days of Christmas," this comedy will make your seasonally appropriate celebration all the merrier. Veteran Lauren Anderson provides her usual brand of bawdy humor and clever characterizations, Taj Ruler stands out with comic understatement and dry humor, and Andy Hilbrands delivers many highlights, including a bit about Online Shopping Disorder. www.bravenewworkshop.com
2 "Philomena" grapples with moral and ethical issues — misdeeds of Ireland's Catholic Church, sexual repression, journalistic cynicism — while maintaining a rollicking sense of humor. Starring Judi Dench as a Irishwoman trying to find the son she was forced to give up for adoption, this real-life tale is dramatized in a way that respects the facts and also touches the heart. A veritable barrage of dramatic bombshells, it's a human interest story perfectly told.
3 There are worse things than being abandoned in Paris. Ann Mah knows that. Still, she was sad to have her diplomat husband sent off to Baghdad for a year just after they began their dream assignment in France. She filled the void with food, and readers of her new book, "Mastering the Art of French Eating," will be glad she did. Mah channeled her loneliness into road trips around France, learning the secrets of the signature dishes of 10 regions. Her memoir provides a progressive dinner of food, countryside and the people who make French cuisine the feast that it is.
4 Loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen," "Frozen" unfolds in a Disney-fied version of 19th-century Norway, where two princesses live with their doting parents. The older sister has the secret, magical ability to chill whatever she touches. During some horseplay, she accidentally zaps her younger sister. Guilt and a sisterly drama ensues — especially when coronation day approaches.
5 Their opening set for Gary Clark Jr. and appearance at Cities 97's "Sampler" party last month left many Twin Cities music lovers all abuzz about the Wild Feathers, a Nashville quintet with Southern-rock grit but brotherly Dawes/BoDeans-style folk-rock vocals. Some of the oomph of their live set was polished over on their eponymous full-length debut, issued in August via Warner Bros. But the jangly single "The Ceiling" and several other tracks qualify as a good introduction.
