The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes

Fox Theatre

Considering that they started out right here in 1925 as the Missouri Rockets, it’s a bit surprising that it has taken nearly 80 years for the Rockettes to finally make it to St. Louis. Still, better late than never, especially when the famed precision dance team is the centerpiece of that gloriously glitzy confection known as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

I’m something of a traditionalist when it comes to the holiday season. That is to say, I prefer to honor the ancient midwinter festival of light that people celebrated for millennia before it was appropriated and re-named by those newfangled Christians. As a result I was mostly pleased as Everclear punch to see a musical Christmas show alive with light – to say nothing of color, dance and song. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular more than lives up to its name, with lavish sets and costumes, a stage full of talented performers and, of course, the superhuman precision of the Rockettes.

Whether they’re tapping their way through “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – with a different set of steps for each of the dozen gifts, including a witty nod to Marius Petipa in the “Seven Swans a-Swimming” – or giving an eerily convincing impersonation of wind-up dolls marching with pinpoint accuracy to “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”, this team of 18 dancers is truly a stunning sight to behold. Personally, I think director and choreographer Linda Haberman uses their characteristic high-kicking chorus line step at least once too often, but the opening night audience ate it up, so what do I know?

The Rockettes aren’t the whole show, of course. There’s an entire separate singing and dancing chorus for enthusiastic renditions of “Santa’s Gonna Rock and Roll” (by Henry Krieger and Bill Russell of Side Show fame) and Jerry Herman’s “We Need a Little Christmas”, among others, along with three Little People (Sebastian Saraceno, Ronald Lee Clark and Nathan Webner) to take on the roles of elves and dancing snowmen. Webner, in particular, stands out as “Bob”, the rappin’ elf. And last but not least, there are the energetic Scott Willis as Santa Claus, the charming Tina Johnson as Mrs. Claus and young Makensie Howe (alternating with Kylie Obrien) as a diminutive Sugar Plum Fairy in an abbreviated version of The Nutcracker with dancing teddy bears and, resplendent in her pink tutu, a prima “bear”lerina.

Sorry about that; chalk it up to that Everclear punch

At just about two hours including intermission, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is, in short, an unashamedly gaudy holiday party – at least until the last scene, the so-called “Living Nativity”. A staple of the show since 1933, the “Living Nativity” is what your grade school Christmas pageant would have looked like had it had been staged by Cecil B. DeMille, complete with live animals; elaborately costumed Wise Men and retainers; reverential narration which manages to tell the story of Jesus’ birth without once using the words “God”, “Christ”, “Jew” or, for that matter, “Jesus”; and a very Anglo Joseph and Mary gazing adoringly at what appears to be an empty crib. Coming after eleven cheerfully secular scenes topped off by a “winter wonderland” ballet, it struck me as oddly out of place and so blandly generic in its spirituality that it failed to succeed even as pandering.

Still, this is the season of good cheer and forgiveness, and there’s so much good cheer in the rest of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular that I’m willing to forgive the sappy conclusion. Go, enjoy, take the kids, and may visions of sugarplums dance in everyone’s head. It’s the Fox through New Year’s Eve; call 314-534-1111 for tickets.

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