Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
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To expand a bit on Bob’s statements, I have found out some more info on the situation. After snooping around a bit, I found out that about every fifth Rockette or so has a mic. So some of their singing is live and some on tape. It’s just not practical to mic every one of them. Also, I don’t think there are as many dancers and singers out there as you think that can do what they do.
Some additional thoughts about pre-records:
In the first place, pre-recording has been going on for years. When you saw Astaire and Rogers dancing and singing, they were working to “Playback” of recordings made on the music scoring stage. On set recording wouldn’t be of high enough quality to use and would reflect any “thumps” and extraneous noise on the stage. Indeed, these days ADR (automated dialogue replacement) is used extensively in most features even when the performances on done on a studio soundstage. Location sound has obvious disadvantages. The Rockettes are precision dancers primarily, and again, who says they aren’t really singing or doing it as satisfactorily as any Broadway performers? While I feel that the audio mixes for live performances are often over-miked and over-loud, they are what this generation has come to expect in terms of performance audio sound.
Secondly, it would be hard to get enough radio frequencies to mic 36 Rockettes individually, nor is it possible to use mics to adequately cover their movements across the whole stage, given that its a block wide and about 60' deep. In the original Hall audio operation there were five “rising” mikes that came up out of the floor to pre-set heights for solo performers. They were also used to pick up the sound of the Rockettes taps, but not vocals. In later years “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” had mikes with R.F. transmitters placed in some of the dancer’s shoes to pick up the sound of their dancing, but even then some of the sound of their dancing was pre-recorded. Its possible to mic solo performers, but again getting 36 mics is a bit much. And beside, who would want to see the Rockettes wearing those annoying little boom mics that hang on the ear like a telephone headset? I’ll take a little artifice anyday.
Gee Al, maybe you are a little hard on the girls. They are in about 75% of the show, kicking and dancing their little hearts out.
The singing is really secondary to the dancing, I forgive them the lip sync. I can not even imagine, with all the different numbers they have in the show, how they even remember it all.
I would certainly agree if i went to a concert
and the lead singer(s)lip synced, that would be shamefull.
The show was pretty good. and one of the highlights for me was watching that curtain go up and own so often. Rather magnificent to see.
I have noticed some lip-synching at Broadway shows as well. When did this become acceptable? Radio City should be ashamed for presenting kicking amateurs.
Although it is difficult to sing and dance at the same time thousands of real talents have done so for years. This is just another case of audiences demanding less for more money.
With so many talented unemployed singers and dancers out there Radio City should do better. If a Rockette cannot be consistent enough at every performance she has no business on stage. If a dancer can’t sing she should keep her mouth shut. Those who pay top dollar to see pop stars lip-synching in large arenas are simply paying for being in their presence.
I expect more for my money.
I imagine that the atmosphere along Sixth Avenue was a lot different back when the El was still in service.
There used to be a bowling alley across the street from Radio City?
Thank you Bob for the information about “Saboteur”. I always thought it was filmed there. I still have my Pioneer CLD-3030 as well as many titles on LD. Maybe I’ll attempt to find a copy of “Saboteur”.
With all this talk about lip-synching at the Hall, I just want to say that when I introduced the 1979 Christmas Show at Radio City, I was live. I might have been the only part of the show that was, and it was all me!
Never heard a comment like that before. I have gotten nothing but great reviews about the show. Bob is right. It’s hard to dance and sing at the same time without losing your breath. As far as I know, all of the Rockettes audio is taped now. I personally don’t have a problem with that. I think a lot of the audience knows that they are lip syncing it.
I am not surprised about the lip-synching. I went to the RCMH show about ten years ago for the first time in years and was startled to see how canned a production it is. There is not one spontaneous moment. And it is badly paced for youngsters. Right in the middle of the Nativity, my 10 year-old godson asked loudly, “Is this almost over?!” Bring back any Christmas prior to 1967, please.
That’s Show Business! Actually, I’m not sure that the Rockettes don’t do their own singing. The problem with all the singing done during the show is that it’s difficult to sing and dance at the same time across a stage that big without running out of breath. When I was there all of the vocal numbers, except those actually being performed by soloists were pre-recorded in the recording studio which was designed to by Roxy’s broadcast studio. Its not so much a case of deception (although in a sense that’s the basis for a lot of theatrical illusion) as practicallity.
A couple of notes on the posts above: Warren, the Rockettes have been “singing” for years, lip synched to tape. They had already started the practice when I started there in 1974. The orechestra was conducted to “click” track on tape with the vocal on another track. In fact the whole show has been tied to a click track for a very long time. I always felt frustrated in the rare times the tape stopped for some reason the whole show did also. I always felt like “you’ve got an orchestra in the pit and performers on stage — get on with it!” Now the show is done to hard drives not tape, but the concept is the same. One of the reasons for using a click track for the orchestra was that one of our conductors when I went there in 1974 (who shall remain nameless but who was famous for conducting a band on radio) was wildly erratic in keeping to a beat, and at times would start conducting at double tempo leaving the Rockettes scattered about the stage. Tying him to a click track was the solution. The tape deck in the sound booth on projection level could be started by the conductor from the podium and would stop on its own with the next cut cued up. I remember an Easter show when I got a call from one of the the projectionists that no one had shown up from the sound department for a show, and could I help. I rushed over to the theater and got there at the end of the “Glory of Easter” segment, and managed to get the P.A. system up, and get the tape cued up to the next cue. It was one of the few times the cast actually sang with no amplification for the “Glory”, and one of the House Managers said he had never heard the audience so quiet and attentive!
I have been told that while the end of “Saboteur” looks as if it were shot in the Hall it wasn’t. It was done with matte shots of the Hall. I have it on Laserdisc (remember those?)and have still framed the sequence. If you look carefully, everything above the audience, including the light beam from the projector is a matte. In the shots of the rear of the auditorium the doors don’t quite line up with aisles as they do in the Hall, and the wallpaper pattern isn’t quite the same.
Fred Kellers was always amused that when the villian runs out on the Choral Stairs he exits directly onto 50th Street. In reality the Choral Stairs openings lead into a narrow area with stairs up to the level above the stage near the passenger elevators, and down to the stage. While other films have been shot in the Hall, “Saboteur” was a careful recreation on a sound stage instead.
Howard,
Thank you, and for your preservation work. The photos of the lounge area at the Boyd site were quite beautiful also. I will further check out Mr. Ricci.
The orchestra does have a solo for about 30 seconds. Santa in the sleigh is right before he flies off to open the 3D scene. Speaking of the Christmas show, I can’t believe the amount of mistakes being made this year on stage. It seems like everyday there is something else. Not to mention the problems with the sets. LOL.
My May 27, 2007 posts:
A family member of decorator Armando T. Ricci (who worked on the Boyd Theatre www.FriendsOfTheBoyd.org)) sent me a 1941 Theatre Catalog article by Ricci. To share historic photos of Radio City Music Hall, I scanned it.
These are likely Opening Day photos with Ricci’s description, of a corner of the grand lounge, and the Nicotine Room!
View link
close-up of Nicotine Room:
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Online, here’s Donald Deskey in the Nicotine Room:
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corner of Grand Lounge:
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I’ve been to Radio City Music Hall, but don’t recall seeing the Art Deco furniture. Does Bouche’s mural survive? Does Deskey’s Nicotine Room wallpaper (assuming that’s wallpaper) survive?
posted by HowardBHaas on May 27, 2007 at 3:17amAh, after more searching online, I can answer my question as to the wallpaper.
Nicotine Room aka Men’s Lounge, in 2006, with same wallpaper, sconce, and some surviving furniture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/89841688/
posted by HowardBHaas on May 27, 2007 at 9:29am
Woody,
Thank you for posting the beautiful photos in November.
Questions: (I think some of this was covered in a posting up the string, but in scanning back I could not locate it) a. Are the murals in the lounges original, ca. 1932; b. in the men’s basement lounge (photo is reddish) is the covering on the walls adjacent to the murals, a series of reddish hued squares a la Mark Rothco(?)and original or of later vintage, and a wallpaper covering; © as to the leather (naugahyde?) chairs throughout – are they all original with original colored upholstery, ca. 1932; and (d) could someone provide the name of the interior decorator and any direction to history on that decorator’s referenced style, or intention for this theater? Thank you.
Justin: Several movies have scenes set and filmed in the Music Hall. The penultimate scene in Hitchcock’s “Saboteur”; the “Let’s Go To The Movies” number in “Annie” features the Rockettes. There’s a scene in Woody Allen’s “Radio Days” and a virtual Radio City in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. There’s also a scene in “The Godfather” where Al Pacino and Diane Keaton are walking out of the Hall. Did I miss anything?
The show was fun to watch. We saw about 45 mins of the 90 min show.
I love the rockettes and have for more years than I can count. But, it was overkill, surely there were other entertaining parts to the show, it seemed like a love letter to them. The show could have been called the Rockettes Christmas show.
One thing that bugged me was the insane decision to cut away three times during the climatic toy soldier’s fall. I would have liked to have seen, once again, the fall completely uninterrupted instead of distracting shots of the kids in the audience with their mouths and eyes wide open.
I wonder if the orchestra has an overture in the new show, which would have been wonderful to see, perhaps instead of so many Rockette segments. Does anyone know if the orchestra has a solo in the show? Also, that opening shots of Santa in he sled, is that the 3-D portion?
One had to marvel at the amazing set design, a truly magnificent part of the show.
Blame it on NBC, not Cablevision. Has a movie ever been shot inside the hall?
I saw the Radio City documentary and though I did very much enjoy it, I was disapointed that too much of the focus seemed to be on The Rockettes and not enough on the theater itself. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Rockettes, but I would have loved to have seen video of the lounges, the back stage areas, how the orchestra comes out of the pit and glides accross the stage; how they can create an ice rink on stage, etc. I would have liked to hear more about the actual history of the theater through the years as well. They did do that to a degree; I just wanted more.
I watched a bit since I was busy watching college football. It was ok. Better to go see it in person at the hall than watching it in HD!!! When will MSG re-air that great doc on the history of the hall? Let me know so I can watch it again….is it also on demand on the Cablevision systems?
“Christmas” movies weren’t necessarily released at that time of year during the 30’s and 40’s. “Holiday Inn,” which introduced the song “White Christmas” was a summer attraction at the Paramount, and “Miracle on 34th Street” opened at the Roxy in July.
It’s too bad it lost because “Scrooge” with Albert Finney is a terrific musical. Easily one of the three best filmed versions of the story, IMO (the 1951 Alistair Sim version & the 1984 George C. Scott television version are the others).
If you’ve ever seen clips from the Academy Awards presentation of 1971, the song “Thank You Very Much” from “Scrooge” was a theme of sorts that a number of celebrities sang at various points in the show (and in various different languages). Unfortunately, that didn’t guarantee an Oscar for the ditty – it lost to the tune “For All We Know” from the movie “Lovers and Other Strangers.” Someone named Larry Meredith sang the tune on that film’s soundtrack, but it was popularized later by The Carpenters. You might remember the song which begins with the line “Love, look at the two of us…”
that movie didn’t do well and signaled the decline of the christmas movie, according to a doc I saw on AMC a few years ago. It wasn’t until “A Christmas Story” that feel good christmas movies came back to theaters.
Just came back from seeing “No Country For Old Men”, the trailer was good, but the movie was not, especially the ending. These days, ever since the 1970’s, trailers give away the whole storyline, except the ending. Some of them are really good and don’t reveal anything at all, like “Cloverfield”. As for Radio City’s policy of showing trailers back when they showed movies, they probably did a better job than most theaters these days. Could you imagine if the Hall showed previews of upcoming events at the hall before the Xmas Spectacular? That would make a really long show!!! Also, it’s that time of year…is this year’s show better than that of years past, or is it the same old bore?