New York Spring Spectacular

New York Spring Spectacular

Radio City Music Hall

March 14, 2015

I was about 10 years old on my first trip to Radio City Music Hall.  My Aunt Delores brought me, my sister, my brother, and my two cousins, Denise and Angela.  The movie was Disney’s The LoveBug along with the Rockettes Easter Show.  Yes, way back then Radio City showed a movie with the Rockettes show, and it was NOT socially unacceptable to have a religious reference in the title.  I remember so much about that day.  Waiting on the platform for the D train from Brooklyn into Manhattan (the fare was only twenty-five cents).  Going to lunch in Rockefeller Center (a restaurant in Manhattan was a big deal to a 10 year old from Brooklyn).  The Rockettes’ kick line before the movie (I wanted to stay and see it a second time after the movie).  And when Denise said that Angela was surprised when we got off the train at 47-50^th Street in New York City, because she thought Radio City was a separate borough.

Photo courtesy of Radio City Music Hall

I did not expect a moving experience or a cathartic script when I got my tickets for New York Spring Spectacular last month.  I expected great old fashioned singing and dancing, big production numbers, huge sets, and a brilliant light show.  What I got was that and more. 

The show started exactly at 8:00 PM.  When and where does that ever happen?  The orchestra rose from the pit playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.  I couldn’t stop smiling.  In fact, every time the orchestra rose from the pit, I smiled.  That was probably the simplest technological feat of the evening, but it was still the most thrilling.  Other highlights were the “Singing in the Rain” number set in Central Park.  Yes, it rained on stage.  Poured, actually.  The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers number set on top of the Empire State Building.  The Rockettes “New York, New York” kick line.  The art exhibits from the Metropolitan Museum of Art coming to life, or should I say dancing to life.  But for me, the most entertaining part of the show was the voices of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as the two New York Public Library Lions, aptly named Patience and Fortitude.  The show was 90 minutes of non-stop, high energy entertainment.  The technology is truly amazing.  The sets move in and across, and up and out with precision and timing matched only by the Rockettes themselves.  They were so magnificently designed that you could not tell where the physical structures ended and where the computerized images began.  It all moved and overlapped and became one visual feast you have to experience for yourself.  I stared in wonder wanting to know how they were doing it all.

All the performances were amazing, but the reason it is called a spectacular is because it just is (spectacular).  If you have a childhood memory of Radio City Music Hall and the Rockettes, New York Spring Spectacular will warm your heart.  If you do not have memories, go NOW and create some.   

Domenick Danza