Let's all go to the show

Magnet #304 - Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular

After living here for more than a dozen years, I finally braved the tourists and the crowds and the children, and went to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City last year.

The show was both great and a little odd at the same time. The performances themselves were spot-on, and supercool to watch all the Rockettes do all their dance numbers. I've only met a couple of Rockettes, and it amazes me that they all have to be the same height and build, just to even be considered.

But, I had an odd kind of moment during the show, because I realized how used to being in NY I've become. Growing up down in NC, where I knew one Jewish guy in high school, we always said Merry Christmas. Then, over the years here, I've just gotten used to saying Happy Holidays, to be more inclusive of all religions. So I was surprised (at how surprised I was) to see how Christmassy the show was. I know that the show is actually called Christmas Spectacular, but when they actually did the Nativity story, I was surprised to see that overt Christ message - outside Mass. I dunno, it was just an odd, very Christian, moment for me.

Anyway, moving on - I've seen a couple of Daytime Emmy productions at Radio City, and now the Christmas show, and each time I sit in one of their seats, I just marvel over the auditorium. It's quite amazing. I love Radio City, as a performance venue, and this may shock you, but I've taken the tour. Twice. With the same tour guide. Seriously.

It's such a wonderfully designed theatre, and it's just chock-full of history from its Art Deco days with Clark Gable and Ginger Rogers, to now, where apparently Cheech and Chong are playing (?).

But for me, it'll always be the theatre where Gracie and Daddy Warbucks took Annie, when they all went to the movies.