Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
favorited this theater
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Yes, the Christmas Spectacular is often at the TKTS half-price booth in Times Square; I’m not sure about the South Street Seaport location. Thanks for reminding me…maybe I’ll check it out at half-price, and it’ll be a good opportunity to explore the Hall again. I love going into the upper mezzanines and looking out over the lobby, or sitting in and watching the show from that extreme perspective.
Imagine standing on line for 3 hours to see one of the best Christmas shows ever at the Music Hall and it only lasted 22 minutes. That was when “Sayonara” was the 152 minute feature. The Nativity was only 7 minutes long followed by a 2 minute overture. The Rockettes did their traditonal 6 minute routine as 36 tapping Santas,followed by the 7 minutes Underseas Kingdom finale featuring Kirby’s flying ballet. How about .95 before noon; 1.25 noon to 6pm and 1.50 6pm to closing. 1st Mezzanine reserved seats were 1.80 matinees and 2.40 for all evenings and Saturday and Sunday. Eat your heart out.
CC now you’ve really got me started. The narration in the current Nativity has to be proof positive of the non existence of God. I thought I was reading a poster in a Christian Right church basement. Whoever came up with that should have been buried in the foundation of the Times Square Mariott. And then they follow this with a Walgreen inspired creche! Fortunately when I saw it the midgets in the toy house popping out singing Fa la la la la la put me into such a state of shock that the effect was somewhat mitigated.
Vincent: YES! Thank you for that great description. THAT’S the Nativity I remember so well. That friggin' thing would give me goose pimples when I was a kid. And THE BLUE LIGHT!!!! That was one of the most amazingly beautiful things I have EVER seen and I’m not religous. It was dramatic and awe inspiring.
The show today is lame. Yes, the shepherds descend from the side flanks but it’s near the end. Then at the end, they do this weird scrolling story thing about the glory of Jesus while a narrator recites what’s written on the screen. I thought I was in the midwest (sorry.). One of the reasons I took my daughter to see it was that I assumed (wrongly) that it would be the same.
Why the HELL could they not have kept the original Nativity? Do you know when the one you and I saw was last performed?
Thanks again…
I consider it a real loss that they don’t do Leonidoff’s Nativity any more. When the stage show started and the house darkened turning to a deep blue the orchestra rose with only the sound of chimes playing the opening of Silent Night. It would repeat going up an octave and the chorus dressed as Renaissance shepards and such would appear on the side flanks lit up as tableaux and sing the entire carol. Then the curtain would go up to reveal the night sky over Bethlehem and they would only descend when the angel would appear and start singing o Holy Night which they would all join in at the end. After the Nativity the orchestra would rise to its normal height and always play Sleigh Rise introducing the more secular part of the spectacle.
Vincent: hey, I was a kid and Mom paid admission so what did I care, right? In my mind, the Christmas show back then was excellent. It was a great thing to go see. We never got reservations and always got great seats OR we’d move to another section after the first show (or movie) to see it again even better. Best deal in the city by far. Yeah, I had to sit through some less than desirable movies (“Slipper and the Rose” stands out in my mind as one of the worst I had to endure) but the show and the Music Hall made it all worthwhile.
People today have asked me what I thought of the show and all I could think of was that it seemed like one of those shows you see at Disney World or such with much more exhorbitant admission price.
I’m not sure how events are booked at the Music Hall these days but whom ever is doing it probably doesn’t care about the quality as long as whatever the venue is, it brings in $$$. I know that it’s somehow tied into The Theater at Madison Square Garden now.
Sadly, there is nothing ‘popular’ about todays prices…… the term usury comes to mind.
No CConnolly, $7 would have been considerd an outrageous admission price. Top general admission,including all of the orchestra from 70 to 76 would have been from $3 to $4. The Music Hall while still in its movie phase prided itself on popular prices(when was the last time you saw that term used?)
I think that when I saw The Promise in 1979, it was $5 for eve shows. I was there the last day.
Warren: not to sound cynical but the cut rate deals are often for off peak dates and/or times (typically before Thanksgiving or if after, for unpopular times like 9:00 AM or so…). I believe that after a certain point, every show is Peak and the discounts mean you get the dregs of the seating like the rear of the orchestra to the far right or left. I paid premium for the tickets because I used a certain credit card and was assured that they were great seats. They were mediocre at best. I can only imagine what the cut rate folks got.
Like RobertR says, during the 70’s, you could see the show any number of times for around $7. (I’m not sure of the exact price but I’m sure it wasn’t anything near to what I paid…)
Robert I hate to tell you this but when I saw Scrooge with an elaborate Christmas show if you got there in the morning before 12 I believe it was $2 on a Saturday. A first run movie at the time was $3. Movies are now $10.50. That’s less than a 400 percent increase. Today to see the Christmas show it’s $100. That’s a 5,000 percent increase. And back then you could stay and watch it all over again! So the price of a Music hall ticket today is 10x’s more than it should be at current price standards.
It’s hard to believe we now pay $100 for what we used to spend $5 for with a movie.
They could do this for the Easter show and during the summer. Cut the stage show back to 45 to 50 minutes cutting out a lot of the annoying filler and utilize the old set designs and the old staging(if anybody around still remembers it.)At this point I assume all the old sets have been destroyed and all the old lighting charts as well. At Christmas of ‘69 the Colorama magazine in the Sunday Daily News had a two page color spread of the Nativity. It was one of the best photos I’ve seen of it. The powers that currently be should get a hold of it and see how it’s supposed to look. Their own poverty of imagination would stun them.
Judging from how mediocre the Christmas show was, I could not agree with you more.
How amazing it would’ve been to have seen the shortened one that I remember so well (and saw every year when I was a kid) along with “The Spongebob Movie”!!! My daughter would’ve had a REAL treat.
Though she enjoyed the show overall, I could tell after 45 minutes or so, she was getting “itchy” as was I. Since there’s no story or anything, it’s hard to keep interested in one “spectacular” production number after another. There were at least three parts of it that I remember from when I saw it as a kid. The rest was filler to make people feel like they were getting their money’s worth.
Since Radio City is no longer the exclusive movie house it once was, they could most definately play a film like “Lord of the Rings”, “Spongebob” or any Disney feature when it opens for general release. Put a stage show with it and charge $20.
“If only there was a fair balance between the "crap” and classic movies. "
On that note, I will completely agree with you. I don’t think it would be difficult to imagine the Music Hall filling up if every now and then they showed worthwhile. And I don’t mean just classic films. My feeling is that if they had been able to premiere and show, say, “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” (very epic sized) it would have done pretty well. I for one would’ve loved to have seen it there. There are many times during the year where the offerings at RCMH are slim (not sure if it’s ever dark, though). But what movies do you think could or would fill up the Hall enough to warrant this? I don’t know anything about bookings and such so it would be hard to figure whether or not they’d be able to either make a profit or at least break even.
If only there was a fair balance between the “crap” and classic movies.
Well, I was there on Friday for the show and I hate to say Vincent’s right, but he is. They’re treating the place like it’s Madison Square Garden now. It’s still grand looking but it’s unique aspects that I remember (like the beautiful lounge) is not like it was. It’s got some of the art deco furnishings and such but whole areas are kept behind these partitions to store the overpriced krap souvenirs.
BUT….I think you have to understand the realities of a place like this now. In order for it to survive in some form, they have to do whatever they can to keep it going even if it means cheapening it’s heritage. Entertainment is not what it was 40 or 50 years ago. People don’t go to the movies like they used to even 20 years ago. Yeah, it’s a little nauseating when you think about “Dora the Explorer” playing the Music Hall and such. But it pays the rent and keeps the place alive. That is what we have to be thankful for.
I saw about a half hour of the self congradulatory special last night. It was all I could take. The head of the Rockettes goes on and on about what wonderful troup they are. And so they are. But you can only see them once out of the year and only in the lousy Christmas show. Maybe she needs to think about when else they can be presented in New York. Once a year at the holidays just isn’t professional performing and an insult as well to a great NY institution. Also they need to find a stage producer who knows the capabilities of the stage. Having speakers throughout the auditorium is such a symptom of the stupidity that the current managers get away with.
Just another thing: my daughter was VERY impressed with the Music Hall. She could not believe that at one time they regularly showed movies there. And she made one point that was good for an eight year old. She asked why they have those awful looking hanging speakers and light holders above and to the side of the stage. Once she said that, I had to totally agree. There’s one huge set of speakers that comes down from the arch directly above the stage. I know they had to do that for sound and the concerts but it looks awful and kills the effect of the sunrise (sunset?). Either way, my daughter loved the place and especially the two organists. That was a neat touch. I didn’t know they still used the organs.
The RCMH’s underground boxoffice was only open when seats were available. As soon as the theatre reached capacity, it would be shut down, and you had to go up to the street and wait on line to get to the regular boxoffices. Underground, there was a mirrored corridor with a ticket taker at the end of it. You then entered into the theatre’s downstairs lounge, adjacent to the checkroom.
posted by Warren on Nov 22, 2004 at 4:19pm
I took my 8 year old daughter to see the Christmas show on Friday. We got to the theater a little early and went downstairs to the lounge. It seems a lot different than I remember it. Not as big but they did have these temporary partitions blocking off large sections of the lounge area. Behind them, they were storing the overpriced souvenirs they were hocking down there.
Anyway….regarding Warren’s comment about the passageway that led from the lower concourse to the lounge, it’s still there and I found it. It’s on the far side (southern) part of the lounge. It’s concealed by these temporary partitions and behind it are those souvenirs. I managed to work my way around them to get a decent look. It’s all still intact right down to the mirrors that Warren mentioned. The only thing is that at the far end, it does look sealed off except for a single door. So obviously the corridor is still intact just not used at all. Very interesting.
This is late notice but I just learned that there is a special one-hour program about Radio City Music Hall on WOR-TV (UPN network) tonight at 9:00pm.
Answer to RobertR’s post this past September concerning films that played normally at the MH but were roadshown elsewhere. Add MGM’s 1960 “Cimarron” to the list. Played, to indifferent results, at the Hollywood Paramount (now El Capitan again) and Philadelphia’s Stanton, a Warner house not previously known for roadshows.
The book is especially bittersweet as when it was written so many theaters were still standing in good condition including one of the 3 greatest the SF Fox. The epilogue of the book if I remember correctly is titled “An End to the Slaughter.” Well there was no end it just continued leaving us very few and some of those in perhaps non salvageable condition.
Speaking of Bosley Crowther, it is interesting to note that he was selected to write the Introduction to the late Ben Hall’s landmark book THE BEST REMAINING SEATS, THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE MOVIE PALACE. Maybe it was just because both Hall and Crowther worked for the TIMES, but then maybe Ben actually respected Bosley’s opinion of the significance of such and his book. Perhaps this lends pespective.