Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Opening Night: November 7, 2014
Closing: December 31, 2014
Theater: Radio City Music Hall
Experience this one-of-a-kind celebration that brings together family, friends, and loved ones. The Rockettes® dazzle in brilliant dance numbers and Radio City® shines with the joy of the season. Follow Santa on his sleigh ride, see ice skaters swirl across the stage, and catch a snowflake or two in this immersive theatrical experience like no other.
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November 13, 2014
Had you asked me what the Radio City Christmas Spectacular was missing when I last saw (and reviewed) it two years ago, I probably would have said nothing. This 81-year-young institution, which is playing at Radio City Music Hall through December 31, has long prided itself on giving you everything it possibly can in exchange for your theatregoing dollar — and then some. But at this year’s version, they successfully managed to fill a gap I hadn’t realized they had: snow. Oh, it’s been hinted at for years — in the three-dimensional projected sleigh ride and plenty of scenery that lights up on the vast upstage LED wall — but that’s all background stuff. This year, the 12th of the 14 scenes in New York’s defining theatrical spectacle treats the cold, white crystals directly, and as only it can. First the world-famous Rockette’s melt on to dance with their usual precision (cooled down here, along with their glass-glittery costumes, which are credited to Gregg Barnes, Frank Krenz, and the late Martin Pakledinaz), then a collection of giant, transparent snow globes explodes from the orchestra pit, and, of course, the whole thing finishes with a literal blizzard of paper flakes that elicit the de rigueur oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
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November 13, 2014
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular seems to have been around forever. OK, not exactly forever, but since 1933, when the show started spreading holiday cheer in razzmatazz fashion. And the Spectacular seems largely unchanged, thanks to the old-fashioned presence of those timeless precision dancers, the Rockettes, with their legs down to here and their arms up to there. This year’s edition is true to form, an eye-popping extravaganza of synchronized moves and ho-ho-ho enthusiasm. Watching the extraordinary “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” — which debuted 81 years ago — is like being beamed to a more innocent era. But the Spectacular has also evolved. The other original number, “The Living Nativity,” is a lot swifter than it used to be, with wise men and live animals crossing the stage at a steady clip — chop chop, gotta get to that manger!
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November 16, 2014
Radio City Music Hall hasn’t changed. Its cavernous red-and-gold Art Deco auditorium (né 1932) is as grand as ever in this year’s Radio City Christmas Spectacular, with two Wurlitzer organs booming holiday music. The Rockettes, a company that has been part of the Christmas show since 1933, will charm your socks off. If you’ve seen them do the “Wooden Soldiers” number only on television at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade lately, let me be the first to remind you: It is so much more fabulous in person. The Radio City show has changed, of course. The 3-D sleigh ride over Manhattan rooftops is giddy fun, like an oh-I-didn’t-realize-I-could-fly dream, but the giant GPS-directed snowflake bubbles are a little sci-fi and creepy. Old-fashioned cuteness triumphs, particularly in “The Nutcracker” with human-size teddy-bear ballerinas in tutus. The Christmas Spectacular is almost as much a celebration of New York as it is of the holidays. The message: You are so lucky to be here at this time of year. It’s a little worrisome when the Rockettes’ onstage tour bus, against a video-screen backdrop, drives boldly uptown on downtown Fifth Avenue and seems to zoom through parts of Central Park where there are no roads. But what the heck? That particular number ends with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” with half the dancers in sparkly red, the other half in sparkly green, in a Times Square where every video screen shows holiday decorations, dancers or, alas, logos of the show’s corporate sponsors.
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