The Midnight Train Crossing

I didn't really know what to expect - I'd heard of the Rockettes of course, I knew that they were famous for doing well synchronized dances and high kicks. The show was in the Arena too and I can't remember the last time that I saw an actual show in the Arena. I've graduated twice there, but never actually seen a show.

A sign in the lobby quite confused me - it said no professional quality cameras and no video recording. We looked at that sign for a bit, trying to interpret it. Did that mean that ordinary cameras were allowed? I wasn't sure. Either way, I didn't have my camera though, so it didn't matter.

The Arena is large. They had half of it blocked off to be the "backstage area." There was a large red curtain that looked like a traditional theatre set up. The stage jutted out into the audience. There were stairs going up either side of the curtain, leading up into small "buildings" on either side of the stage, they looked like green houses. Inside each little house was the band/orchestra. I didn't notice them right away until the lights came up on them. I thought that was pretty cool, that they were actually onstage and visible if you knew where to look. With some of the music and singing, I could not tell who was actually singing and how much of it was pre-recorded. Some people were obviously miked, but some were not.

There was sort of a loose story that tied the various dance numbers together. Santa came out and guided us through the story.

There were six "narrators" I guess I would call them. Three guys and three girls frequently walked out onto the stairs on either side of the stage and sang. They all had good voices. One guy in particular had a wonderful voice when they sang Joy To The World.

We started out with the Rockettes coming out dressed in brown and wearing antlers. They are dancing around for awhile and then Santa comes out with his sleigh. He tells his "reindeer" that before they go for Christmas, they have another important stop to make: they have to go to Milwaukee for a special show. So, they went off the stage "pulling" the sleigh.

First though, Santa takes us to NYC, the home of the Rockettes. Christmas is so wonderful, and they are a big part of Christmas for a lot of people. So now seems like a good time to perform "the Twelve Days of Christmas." The main thing that I have to say about that was it was a fantastic remix of the song. It was a bit techno-ish, and I liked it. They struck poses that were supposed to represent the twelve gifts - twelve through nine worked well, and the three French hens worked, but the other numbers, I wasn't quite sure how they represented the gifts.

After that, Santa returned to the stage to talk about Christmas memories and traditions, and one of his favorite traditions is the Nutcracker. This led nicely to the Nutcracker suite, which had a little girl and various and assorted teddy bears. The dancers were all dressed in big fur suits. We had ballet dancer bears with actual toe shoes, which I thought was impressive. There was another ballet dancer bear who was quite a ham - her eyes were rigged to blink and bat her eyelashes. I thought that was cute. In the Nutcracker Suite, there is music that has a bit of an Arabian Nights theme to it, and so out came a bear in a bellydancer out fit. Then, there is a Oriental type music section, and out came the panda bears. The whole scene was adorable. They'd probably make a killing if they sold actual teddy bears based off those characters.

The next scene was another scene with toys. This has been a scene that has always been done in every single Rockette Christmas show since it opened - the march of the wooden soldiers. They are all dressed as toy soldiers, with the red jackets and black hats with tall white feathers. The Rockettes are billed as a being carefully synchronized, and this dance number really showed it. I can't describe it. They marched around in perfect precision and alignment and it was amazingly cool. At the end of the routine, another soldier came out with a cannon. The soldier fired the cannon and the other soldiers, all in a line, went into a slow motion, controlled domino type fall. That was pretty impressive.

Next, we go back to New York. The stage was bustling with other people dressed in ordinary looking clothes running around, going about various different activities. Then the Rockettes came out, dressed in white coats and hats. They got on board a double-decker tour bus to visit NYC in style. So the bus actually did drive around the stage, the wheels were rolling in an exaggerated motion, but clearly not propelling the bus, so either there were wheels under it, or it was on a moving platform. So this scene was cool because behind them they had a huge screen that was showing the sights of the city that they were driving past. I admit I was paying more attention to the moving behind them than the actual people on stage. They stopped at "Central Park" to watch some people skate. Then the purpose of the circular part of the stage that jutted out into the audience was made clear - it was an ice skating rink. A guy and a girl came out and did a short but impressive skating routine. There were a lot of carries and spins. Eventually the Rockettes reached Times Square, where they shed their coats and were wearing red and green dresses - they sort of reminded me of Christmas tree ornaments. I'm not sure why.

While they were in NYC, Santa was doing his stint with the red bucket, collecting, when two boys passed by. The younger one, Ben, asks Santa for help, but his older brother, Patrick, is annoyed. This is not the real Santa - in fact, Santa is not real. Patrick says that there are lots of Santas all over the place. "That's true," says Santa, "I am very busy nowadays, so I decided to solve my problem by learning to be in more than one place at the same time." On that note, many many Santas come out onto the stage and dance around to the tune of "Santa Claus is coming to town." After that song, to further demonstrate his magic, Santa and the two brothers flew around the stage and around the theatre, going to the North Pole so that the boys could pick out the perfect present for their sister.

At the North Pole, the boys are dazzled by the elves dancing around the workshop before going inside to see the rag dolls come to life and dance around with blocks. I was spending part of their dance wondering what the significance to the letters were - they were all alphabet blocks. There were a lot of Q's and K's. But then, at the end of the routine, they held up the blocks and it spelled out "Merry Christmas to All."

The boys returned home with a rag doll to give to their sister. Patrick says that now he believes in the magic. He sings about it, and he had a wonderful voice. I think that he was actually singing. I hope so, because he sounded fantastic.

Then, the lights went down and a video was projected on the curtain, and a narrator was talking about the history of the Rockettes, and their Radio City Christmas Spectacular show. It was interesting, but I think that it was to give the dancers time to change.

The curtain lifted again to reveal the dancers on a staircase dressed in very sparkly white dresses. They danced their way down the stage and went into the sort of routine they are well known for, with plenty of high kicks and spins, all nicely coordinated. There were also a few solo dances too, which was cool. The program credited this as the "finale" despite it not being the last thing in the show.

The last thing in the show is the Nativity scene. The brothers and their sister with her new doll, were seated on a couch, reading Luke 2. The curtains rose to show the shepherds out in the field, with an angel suspended above them. They sang a verse of The First Noel. Next came the Wisemen. As they paraded across the stage, complete with camel, the narrator, Patrick I think, talked about the traditional stories behind the Wisemen. They sang We Three Kings as they walked about the stage. I thought that this actually looked a little silly after the third time around. Then the curtain came up again, and they were posed on the stage in the traditional Nativity format, and the Wisemen presented their gifts.

We scene change one more time, and the entire cast came out and sang "Joy to the World", which I already mentioned.

And then... they bowed and the show ended. It was a high power show that sort of fizzled out at the end. I was not impressed with the ending of the show, however, the rest of the show was wonderful.

I sort of decided to see this on impulse and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it very much. It truly was spectacular.