Everybody has their traditions for the holiday season. Some go on family vacations, others bake cookies together. For me, I have seen the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” show almost every year. This seasonal outing began to disinterest me once I started high school, because I believed that I outgrew its charming nature to young audiences. But then I thought, it’s called tradition for a reason.
I am sure that many of us have heard about the show on the radio and the television. After 78 years, it certainly has the money to afford it. How has it remained so successful? It preserves the show-stopping scenes that caught the public’s attention originally, and amends minor elements in order to reflect the taste of the time. For example, when I saw the show about ten years ago, there was no 3-D sleigh ride, nor was there a background screen that displayed hundreds of dancing Santas. The show “upgraded” along with the technology of the age. However, art must do this if it hopes to keep an audience’s attention. Such development can be seen in other mediums of art as well, such as dance and music. Audiences today have shorter attention spans than ever, and demand modernized entertainment.
Many scenes of this classic show remain the same. Numerous audiences are pleased with stories about both Santa Claus and baby Jesus. Elves help the white-bearded man send toys to all the well-behaved children in the world. A scene from the Nutcracker is beautifully performed. And of course, the Rockettes grace the stage with their high-kicking legs in perfect unison. Their meticulous attention to detail is baffeling, considering how many of them there are:
As a freshman in college, I look forward to seeing this show again after an unnecessary hiatus. This artistic tradition warms the hearts of many New Yorkers every year, and hopefully it will continue to do so for a long time.
there is something special about the Christmas show, and I think a lot of it has to do with the tradition of doing it with the same values yer after year. they update a few things, but it is still a big, live show with a live orchestra in a classic (Art Deco) theater. These attributes all hark back to the origins of the show, and the era that produced it and the theater itself. There was another post about “pre-war ” buildings in NY, and this show is a “pre-war” show that evokes that same era. It is not easy to do. I know that the orchestra is a HUGE expense, and one of the most sought after gigs in the city. If you are a violinist in the Radio City Christmas show, you are performing 3 shows a day for a period of 3 – 4 weeks. I know free-lance musicians who do the show because it means they can take really low-paying (and interesting) jobs for months afterwards if they put the money from the show into the bank. The show is also very special for the way it forms a tradition for so many of the audience members.