March 16, 2015

Rockettes Spring Spectacular

On Friday night Dan and I met after work to go see the Rockettes Spring Spectacular show at Radio City.  Since we saw the Christmas show with Mandy in November and they started showing commercials for the spring show (I think this is the first year they've done it) I really wanted to go.  Since Dan loves me and he likes the Rockettes too we made a date.  Squeee.


The show was pretty good but we both felt like the Christmas show is way better.  At the Christmas show it's about 75% Rockettes dancing (which is epic, truly) and 25% corny story line.  The spring show was reversed, about 25% Rockettes and 75% corny story.  The "main character" was Derek Hough.  When he first came on stage the audience went wild and Dan and I were both like "who the heck is that?"  Apparently he is on Dancing with the Stars.  He was a great dancer for sure but since he was a major factor in the corn-ball story line I didn't care for him much.


Just so you don't think I'm being too judgey - the corny story line was this:  Derek Hough's character is supposedly an angel trying to earn his wings.  God is the voice of Whoopi Goldberg.  Derek (his character name was Jack) has to go down to earth and help this old man named Bernie save his old fashioned business where he gives authentic tours of New York City.  There is this power-house young executive named Jenna and she is trying to take over Bernie's business and make it a virtual experience (cuz she is super hip and techy).  The moral of the story - you can't replace the real thing.  Bernie's business is saved, Jenna tones it down, and Jack earns his wings but opts to stay on earth to pursue his love for Jenna.  Sorry, that's a spoiler.

You be the judge.  Corn dog dipped in a can of creamed corn.


Despite the plot we still really enjoyed the show.  We both agreed the special effects at the Radio City shows are the BEST.  This show had LED lights that were given to the audience and in one of the numbers the Rockette's were wearing outfits made out of lights.  Every time Jack did some angel magic the lights in the audience would flicker.  It was pretty cool.



Each number took place at a different iconic location in NYC like the Met, Central Park, Empire State Building, New York Public Library.  




Our favorite dance number was Singing in the Rain.  They had this strip on the stage covered in water (we could see it since we were in the balcony) and Jack and some of the other characters as well as the Rockettes were tap dancing on the water so it was splashing up and looked really cool.  I was so entranced I didn't get a picture. 

There were also a bunch of sports-themed numbers since so much of NYC is about it's sports teams.  There was an ice hockey - Rangers segment, a basketball - Knicks segment, a baseball - Yankees segment, and a football - Giants segment.  Dan enjoyed these because they had projections of the actual star players "giving advice" to Bernie. 



There was a technical glitch at one point when part of the moving stage got stuck. They had to drop the curtain and fix it.  That gave us the opportunity to Google who Derek Hough was. 


There were aerialists, giant animatronics, the voice of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey and lots of other celebrity sightings.  And kick lines - gotta have some kick lines with the Rockettes.

It was epic fun and we had a great time.  We stopped at Magnolia Bakery and grabbed cupcakes before jumping on the train home. 


Side note:  I could be a Rockette.  You need to be between 5'6" - 5'10.5."   I'm 5'9" and I can tap dance.  My dance teacher said the Rockette choreography is actually not that complicated it just looks that way because of the synchronization.  Second career?  Maybe.  Not!

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