Out On the Town or the Poms Take Manhattan
December 22, 2007
In a rare treat, the Pomegranates left their little house on a school night in the dark and went into the Big City for some traditional Christmas fanfare.
You see, it was The Teen's 16th Birthday and we weren't done celebrating yet. (Being a Pomegranate,however, The Teen's first order of business was to get a learner's permit, which she did. More about that later after I recover the power of speech and sight after being struck dumb and blind by seeing my baby driving down the street....)
So we all rushed home from work, got all duded up (some more than others) and plunged into the gridlock alert which is Manhattan at Christmas. We weren't sightseeing or shopping, we were going to see
And let me tell you, spectacular it was!
The Grand Dame of theaters in New York, Radio City never looked better. I should look so good at 75. I'd better start working on it now.
We rushed to our seats and got ready for the Spectacular 3-D Opening Number!
The show was completely revamped for the anniversary and there's a nice montage narrated by Tony Bennett on the history of the theater and the Rockettes, who were first named the Roxiettes after the theater's owner. Though we miss some of the old favorites, like Marshmallow World, the new numbers are well, spectacular! (I'm going for a theme here.) If you saw any of the show on TV last week, I can tell you that the number they do on the double decker bus with the moving backdrop of New York is dumbfounding. All the backdrops are computer animated and are uh, spectacular! Never was there such a Christmas show!
But they knew enough to keep this old favorite, definitely the most famous piece of all, and originally choreographed by Vincent Minelli. (Yes, not the best shot. You try it from rear orchestra with no flash photography allowed.) I would be a nervous wreck if I wasn't the first girl in line. I wonder if anyone forgot to hold on and they really all fell over....)
Do not fear! The camels in The Nativity were still there! Isn't it cool the way the designers use color ways that look just like the German Advent calendars? It was really lovely, just hokey enough to be sweet and elaborate enough to remind you that it wasn't a school play.
The finale was all thing Rockette-y: glittery, diamondy, splashy, precisiony, leggy, and gawjus!
(I felt sorry for the non-Rockette performers. Can you imagine being a regular woman on stage with these gazelles? I'd walk around in burka....don't look at me, don't look at me......)
We all had fun. The Teen got a big Rockettini - a martini glass with Rockette legs filled with slushy and a red light-up swizzle stick. It was adorable seeing all the little kids dressed up in fancy Christmas dresses, wearing their best coats and shoes, holding their 3-D glasses and light up stars that they handed out. It put the shmaltz in Christmas and we all need a little shmaltz right now!
I even managed to get the kids to pose for what may be next year's Christmas card (as long as they don't find out until after I've sent it.....)
Today, it's back to the hard work of celebrating The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: unpacking all the gifts I ordered online and seeing if I actually got what I ordered. Trying to reorder what I didn't get in time for Tuesday. Wrapping everything. Fighting the cold that Mr. Pom gave me. Maybe making some gingerbread dough. Oh, and putting the lights on and trimming the tree because the children, they no seem to care. Next year: tabletop tree!