If you want an old fashioned sleigh ride on jet skis for the holidays, this is your cup of Yuletide cheer. It’s got glitz, glam and just about everything you associate with Christmas.
Also, it’s a masterpiece of advertising.
Silly me. I thought “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes” meant the glam gals here came from New York. But not a one has set foot behind the footlights inside Radio City Music Hall.
You see, the troupe at The Paramount is but one of several that are doing “Spectacular” in major cities around the country including The Big Apple. If you got the demographics, you get the show. It’s the cookie-cutter approach to marketing.
That said, the show is definitely all that it is cracked up to be; which is, a Vita Pak of Christmas goodies.
The world-famous “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” has the eye-high kicking chorus gals with legs up to their necks decked out in full military uniform, doing close-order drills. Like a clockworks of cadets at West Point, not a single white glove, not one black boot is out of step, ever. It’s precision dance in perfect sync.
In fact, “Wooden Soldiers’” finale has you holding your breath. Lined up single file and one by one, each gal collapses back into the next, like dominoes; but in slo-mo, very slo-mo, agonizingly slo-mo. Think of the muscle control.
Megan Camper from Edmonds dances Clara after teddy bears dance the mice scene in “The Nutcracker: A Little Girl’s Dream.”
Santa plays tricks on your eyes appearing, reappearing and multiplying from behind a black curtain in “I’m There.”
You go on a shopping spree in Manhattan; tour Santa’s workshop seeing elves, toys that animate, rag dolls that dance.
Digital photography projects you into Santa, seeing as he sees, in his sleigh zooming New York City’s skyline. The reindeer in harness before seem so close, you swear, you can reach out and touch one. Tech effects are absolutely astounding.
As for the show’s capper, it’s “The Living Nativity,” a show tradition that goes back 70 years to the original Rockettes. Live sheep, camels and a donkey along with principal figures, enact the manger story before coming to a complete standstill.
“Spectacular’s” closing scene is a picture-perfect Christmas card with a holiday message. The message is printed on a large screen and read aloud from off stage. It is titled “One Solitary Life.” The life is the life of Jesus. The message is the meaning of Jesus’ life.
I can see how the show might bowl kids over. But it is a little too high tech, too cosmetic, too slick for my taste. A holiday show like this but a little less ambitious, a little more personal would better suit me.
Performances run through Dec. 7 before moving on to Phoenix. Take the kids. See what you think.By Dale Burrows
For the Enterprise
If you want an old fashioned sleigh ride on jet skis for the holidays, this is your cup of Yuletide cheer. It’s got glitz, glam and just about everything you associate with Christmas.
Also, it’s a masterpiece of advertising.
Silly me. I thought “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes” meant the glam gals here came from New York. But not a one has set foot behind the footlights inside Radio City Music Hall.
You see, the troupe at The Paramount is but one of several that are doing “Spectacular” in major cities around the country including The Big Apple. If you got the demographics, you get the show. It’s the cookie-cutter approach to marketing.
That said, the show is definitely all that it is cracked up to be; which is, a Vita Pak of Christmas goodies.
The world-famous “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” has the eye-high kicking chorus gals with legs up to their necks decked out in full military uniform, doing close-order drills. Like a clockworks of cadets at West Point, not a single white glove, not one black boot is out of step, ever. It’s precision dance in perfect sync.
In fact, “Wooden Soldiers’” finale has you holding your breath. Lined up single file and one by one, each gal collapses back into the next, like dominoes; but in slo-mo, very slo-mo, agonizingly slo-mo. Think of the muscle control.
Megan Camper from Edmonds dances Clara after teddy bears dance the mice scene in “The Nutcracker: A Little Girl’s Dream.”
Santa plays tricks on your eyes appearing, reappearing and multiplying from behind a black curtain in “I’m There.”
You go on a shopping spree in Manhattan; tour Santa’s workshop seeing elves, toys that animate, rag dolls that dance.
Digital photography projects you into Santa, seeing as he sees, in his sleigh zooming New York City’s skyline. The reindeer in harness before seem so close, you swear, you can reach out and touch one. Tech effects are absolutely astounding.
As for the show’s capper, it’s “The Living Nativity,” a show tradition that goes back 70 years to the original Rockettes. Live sheep, camels and a donkey along with principal figures, enact the manger story before coming to a complete standstill.
“Spectacular’s” closing scene is a picture-perfect Christmas card with a holiday message. The message is printed on a large screen and read aloud from off stage. It is titled “One Solitary Life.” The life is the life of Jesus. The message is the meaning of Jesus’ life.
I can see how the show might bowl kids over. But it is a little too high tech, too cosmetic, too slick for my taste. A holiday show like this but a little less ambitious, a little more personal would better suit me.
Performances run through Dec. 7 before moving on to Phoenix. Take the kids. See what you think.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.