In O. Henry’s 1905 short story “The Gift of the Magi,” a young husband secretly sells his pocket watch to buy his wife a comb and she secretly sells her hair to buy him a watch chain.
The worst Secret Santa ever? Or a testament to the generosity inherent in sacrifice? O. Henry saw it as the latter, seeing an echo of the Biblical Magi in the couple’s willingness to give up their most valuable possessions to show their love.
In “The Magi,” Helen R. Murray’s 21st-century update with music and lyrics by Eli Pafumi, the young couple have been touring together for years in a band called, not incidentally, The Magi. What will they sacrifice for love?…