Radio City Christmas Show tickets call 1-732-280-3434

Radio City Christmas Show tickets call 1-732-280-3434

Radio City show has holiday spirit


The 90-minute revue, directed and choreographed by Linda Haberman, was not radically different from previous shows. But favorites such as "The Nutcracker," "Santa's Workshop" and the Mighty Wurlitzer prelude were performed with obvious joy, and a new number, "Twelve Days of Christmas," got the full Rockette oomph, with the troupe kicking hard to the bump of techno-rock.

For your good money ($40-$250 a ticket), for tickets goto www.season-tickets.com you get song, dance, fake snow, 3-D glasses, dancing bears, a big tree and a little philosophy.

"Sometimes, the best gift isn't a toy at all. Then, again, sometimes it is," advises Santa, played for the 20th year by Charles Edward Hall, a most jolly fellow who knows how to rally his reindeer, sing for his supper, and, no doubt, bellow for his breakfast. Jessica Sheridan as Mrs. Claus steps up during the workshop scene, belting out "Man With a Bag" for her man and assuring us that cell phones indeed work on the North Pole.

The Rockettes, meanwhile, raised their angular legs to a variety of tempos and costumes, decked out as reindeer as their shoulders twitched like Elvis Presley; or timing a long, drowsy fall as the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," one collapsing into another as if each were overcome by sleeping powder.

Every party must end, and, as always, the "Spectacular" wound down with the Living Nativity, a hushed and hushing conclusion for which lights dimmed, a chorus sighed "Silent Night" and an earnest voice uttered a familiar story with a few names -- Caesar Augustus, King Herod -- that for many kids may require some explanation.

Audiences in recent years have seemed a bit dazed by the Nativity and its reminder that "He was nailed on a cross between two thieves." But with a soaring call of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" as the finale, the opening night crowd responded with a warm ovation, moved, if not by the letter of the song, then by the spirit.