Editor’s note: For a chance to win tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, click HERE to learn about registering for New York Family‘s Camp Fairs on December 7 & 8!
I’d avoided taking my kids (Josie, now 12, and Maxine, now 9) to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular for years. It’s hard enough to be a Jew at Christmas. I didn’t want to hear any more Santa-related whining than I had to.
But then Josie begged to go. She’d seen the Rockettes on “Project Runway,” she loves musical theater (we’ve been belting the soundtrack from Pippin while putting away laundry), and, well, it’s an awfully New York City thing to do, and are we not New Yorkers?
So off we went. Both girls enjoyed dressing up: Josie in a little vintage ‘60s suit and Maxie in a fancy dress. The evening felt eventful before we’d even left the apartment. When the girls walked into Radio City for the first time and eyeballed the huge glass chandelier in the lobby, they oohed and aahed like tourists. I was so delighted by their sparkling eyes and excited bouncing, I didn’t even mind spending $12.50 on a bag of cotton candy. (It came with a purple fuzzy Santa hat that said “ROCKETTES” on it.)
We were each issued a pair of 3D glasses. Maxie insisted on wearing hers even before the 3D portion of the entertainment began. Paired with the purple hat, it was a whole lot of look, as Tim Gunn would say.
Then the show began, and both girls were swept away. Josie’s favorite parts were the incredible precision dancing of the Rockettes — The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, which the troupe has performed since they began doing Christmas shows at Radio City in 1932, stunned her. The dancers turn in such precise straight lines, their legs barely seeming to move in their billowy white pants, like real toys. When they all fell down, in a tight pancaked one-atop-the-other line, my usually too-cool-for-school tween literally gasped. Maxie loved the “New York City Christmas” number with a double-decker bus and New York City landmarks, the zillion identical dancing Santas and a 3D moment when presents sailed out over the audience. She couldn’t help reaching into the air to try to grab them as they sailed across the auditorium. All around us, other little arms stretched upward too.
I was amused by the attempts to make the show “relevant,” with references to texting and violent video games. In one new number, a little girl begs her mom for a shoot-em-up game for Christmas (“Space Zombie Battle Zone!”) but Santa takes them into a cooperative “real” video game, starring the Rockettes as cool avatars. The duo play together and mama-daughter happiness is achieved. I appreciated that the little girl and her mom were both African-American (especially given that the first black Rockette didn’t appear until 1988!) and the mom was a woman of size…and she could really belt.
Another old-school number is, of course, “The Living Nativity,” which the troupe has performed every year since its inception. The camel, sheep, and donkeys all acquitted themselves well. (That means one pooped.) Josie whispered to me during the number, “I feel left out!” I whispered back, “It’s the ‘Christmas Spectacular,’ not the ‘Holiday Spectacular!’” Hey, honestly I’m glad that someone remembers that Christmas is a religious holiday, not just an excuse for gifts. We had a good discussion about it after the show.
Finally, you probably know this, but Radio City is huge. There are no bad seats. But this year, with giant GPS-controlled silver “Prisoner”-like orbs floating overhead (don’t ask), you might want to spring for orchestra seats if you can. Happy holidays!
Marjorie Ingall is a contributor to Tablet Magazine (he online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture) and an NYC mom of two. She is currently working on a book about how and why Jewish mothers have historically raised self-sufficient, ethical, and accomplished kids.
