(This column first appeared in the December print edition of the Hendersonian.)
We were in New York City several Decembers ago to mark off a bucket list item: To see Manhattan during the holidays. To see ice skaters and the huge Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, to ride the wooden escalators at Macy’s Herald Square, to be jostled on Fifth Avenue on a prime shopping day.
One thing not on our list: To see the Rockettes dance in the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” at Rockefeller Center. Because we had already seen it.
Or so we thought.
In this, the 100th anniversary of the Rockettes, let’s take a look back at how things turned out.
***
A couple or so years before our journey to NYC, my wife and I had gone on a press junket to the Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville to experience its annual “A Country Christmas”: The over-the-top holiday decorations. The ice sculptures. The “Charlie Brown Christmas” displays. The lighting of millions of Christmas lights.
And, at the time, presentations of the Rockettes’ “Christmas Spectacular.”
We had fourth-row seats for a dress rehearsal by the 18 high-kicking Rockettes. And as the name implies, the show was spectacular. There’s “Sleighride,” with the Rockettes dressed as reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh. And “Santa’s Workshop,” with the Rockettes portraying rag dolls.
There’s the timeless “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” which dates to the beginnings of “Christmas Spectacular” in 1933, with Rockettes wearing soldier costumes designed by theater and film director Vincente Minnelli (Liza’s papa) and executing their famed slow-motion fall.
And then there’s the finale: “Living Nativity” with the Rockettes — this time costumed as wise men in ancient finery — streaming through the audience toward the manger while the orchestra performs the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” It’s hard to contain one’s emotions. (I’m not crying; you’re crying!)
It was quite a show. Each Rockette performs 300 high leg kicks per show — and Rockettes in New York might appear in as many as five shows in a day. No wonder many sit in ice baths between shows.
But hey, we had seen “Christmas Spectacular” before, in Nashville. There was no reason to pay to see it again in New York.
Right?
***
What we did pay for was a tour one December afternoon in New York was a guided tour of Radio City Music Hall (which I recommend, along with the guided tour of Rockefeller Center). As it happened, there was a matinee performance of “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” underway, so while we couldn’t enter the magnificent auditorium itself, we were given a glimpse of the proceedings from an observation booth far in the back.
What we beheld stunned us. Opened in 1932 and designed in the Art Deco style, Radio City Music Hall is the largest indoor theatre in the world. It seats nearly 6,000 people. Its stage — known as the Great Stage — is nearly half as wide as a football field is long; it’s framed by a proscenium arch that measures 60 feet high and 100 feet wide. The walls and ceiling of the immense auditorium are formed by a series of arches that seem to pull audience members onto the stage.
The Great Stage consists of three sections mounted on hydraulic elevators that can raise or lower each section; a fourth elevator can lift the entire orchestra. And built into the stage is a large turntable that can be used for special effects — in the “Christmas Spectacular,” it twists a double-decker tour bus around while high-resolution video of New York City nighttime streetscapes is projected on the huge screen at the back of the stage, making it look very much like the Rockettes are being bussed around midtown Manhattan.
And then there were the Rockettes themselves — not 18, as we had seen in Nashville, but 36 precision dancers.
Even peering through the little windows of the observation booth, we could see that the whole affair was … spectacular.
My wife and I looked wide-eyed at one another and said, simultaneously, “We’ve got to get tickets!”
Which is exactly what we did the moment our tour ended. Mere minutes later, we passed through the Grand Lobby and down to our seats where we sat, enthralled.
Ever since then, when I’ve heard about friends going to New York for the holidays, I’ve told them: “You’ve got to go see the Rockettes in the ‘Christmas Spectacular.’”
You should, too. This year’s performances, which began in early November, continue through Jan. 5.
It’s not inexpensive, as you can learn from visiting www.rockettes.com/christmas. But, like me, you’ll probably find yourself talking about it for the rest of your life.
