I have always wanted to go to New York City for Christmas.  I have always envisioned every building in the city with Christmas decorations, central park beautifully glowing with christmas lights and everyone in good spirits throughout the city.  What I loved most about the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular was just that.  It brought the most festive city to the Rupp Arena stage. They had a giant, and I am talking giant, LED screen that was towards the back of the stage and all of the Rockettes climbed aboard a life-size New York City tour bus, which was on stage.  The bus gave the illusion that it was moving and the LED screen had a virtual tour of New York City during the holidays.  I thought it was awesome to look over towards Central Park and see all of the lights on the thousands of trees there and to pass by Rockefeller center with the tree all lit up.  They even had people pretending to be street vendors and passer-bys on stage to help in the illusion, which in part is the reason it seemed like a real New York City bus tour.  This part of the show definitely was my favorite and it was the single thing that would entice me to go to the show again next year!

Santa also had a really big part in the show, helping bring christmas spirit back into children who didn’t believe.  After a chance meeting on the street, two brothers are whisked away to the north pole to help them believe in Santa’s magic again.  As Santa is explaining how he can be all of the world at once, all of these Santas starting coming from everywhere, even from underneath the stage.  They started dancing to a routine and then with the use of the LED screen again, it seemed like millions of Santas started dancing on the screen too.  I think what was so amazing was that they all danced in sync, the Santas on stage and Santas on screen.  It was such a cool illusion, i thought it was really clever and entertaining.

And of course the Rockettes provided their mile high kick routine; which was just awesome to watch.  I am not sure if everyone saw the local television special about the making of the Rockettes, but it showed a behind the scenes tour of how the show is all pulled together.  Between each set, and I believe there were about 5, they had about a minute and half sometimes to change clothing, which one of them even included a makeup change.  I remember one funny tidbit from the special; the show host said that the toy soldier pants will actually stand up on their own because they have so much starch in them.  I can only imagine how hard it must be to walk around stage during that routine in those pants!  Also, when I was talking to the Marketing Director of Rupp Arena, she told me that the buses and trucks that are used to transport all of the people and equipment for this show was definitely one of the biggest and grandest caravans that she had ever seen.  Can you imagine how many shows she has seen to say that this was one of the biggest?

I definitely hope that this show has a chance to come back next year; I think that anyone who has trouble getting into the Christmas spirit would love all of the magic and excitement this show has to offer.  I am sure you won’t be disappointed; how could the most festive and energetic city not provide an uplifting holiday show sure to impress everyone in your family and bring a little of New York City to the Bluegrass!  Happy Holidays!

Guest Blogged by: Julie Johnson