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March 26, 2015

Well, at least the Rockettes get to take the final bow. Those glamorous chorines, with their skyscraper legs flapping away, are a New York institution worth cherishing. So the prospect of a few more weeks of work for the hard-working, high-kicking women in the line makes you want to root for the “New York Spring Spectacular,” a lavish new tourist-baiting entertainment being presented at Radio City Music Hall, itself another cherished city institution. When those beautifully poised women with lithe legs and supersize smiles came forward for their final bow, I was as pleased as anyone else to pay them their due. Sadly, little else in this gaudy orgy of civic hype made me smile. On the contrary, this numbingly overblown 90-minute infomercial for the city that never sleeps threatened to send me into a waking coma. Imagine having the Empire State Building stuffed down your gullet, floor by floor, and you’ll get some sense of this production’s relentless promotional fervor. Aside from a few brief appearances by the Easter bunny, and a finale set to Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade,” the titular season doesn’t feature very prominently in the show, which is probably just as well, since spring doesn’t seem to be grabbing the spotlight too vigorously itself this year in New York.

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