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MAGAZINE - OCTOBER 2013
the Cablevision division that operates
Radio City. “But we saw an opportunity.
We wanted to spare no expense.”
Though the producers would not reveal
the cost of the updated show, the changes
started from the ground up. Parts of
the 144-foot-wide plywood stage were
replaced with rock maple, the same mate-
rial used in the 1930s; it is meant to last
longer, be gentler on the Rockettes (who
do up to six shows a day) and help amplify
the tap dancing.
Using photos of older shows as models,
Ms. Haberman redid the long-running
rag-doll number, which now involves a
three-tiered, 20-foot-high shelf, used as
a sort of display case for Rockettes. A
new set piece, “Christmas in New York,”
inspired partly by a 1949 photo, features a
34-foot-long, 13,900-pound double-decker
bus (license plate: RCMH75). Filled with
Rockettes, it pivots around the stage as
a moving 90-foot LED-screen backdrop
shows scenes in Rockefeller Center and
Times Square; the effect is a dizzying, and
extremely clean, city tour.
But fitting all this massive scenery into
the comparatively small wings wasn’t
easy, Kathy Hoovler, the production stage
manager, said. “For over a week a lot of
the stuff was just out on the street because
there was no place to put it,” she said.
Some of the set went in subbasements,
to be delivered onstage by three freight
elevators, but much of it — including the
bus — is suspended backstage and liter-
ally flown into place at the right moment.
As a result, “it’s just as choreographed
back there as it is out here,” Ms. Hoovler
said. After she and eight assistants spent
hours nailing down who would move what
where and when, they devised contin-
gency plans in case any machinery broke.
“We call it our ‘what-if list,’” Ms. Hoovler
said. “It’s pretty long this year.”
Another contingency: What if, because
you had so much new choreography, you
had to rehearse the whole cast at once?
And spend twice as long doing it? Where
would 180 performers and others — danc-
ers and elves and Santas and children and
singers and choreographers and trainers
— fit? A production assistant secured the
basement of a nearby church; a month of
rigorous training and bonding later, the
cast was back in Radio City, teching.