The chance to be up close and personal with a Rockette? I’ll take it!

That was one of the highlights of this $17 1-hour backstage tour of one of music’s most famous buildings. The other was getting to see a small portion of the sold-out Radio City Christmas Spectacular through an upstairs viewing room. (If there’s a show or rehearsals going on during your tour, they allow you to watch for about 5 minutes or so while giving some more historical and technical info in the background.)

Ask me to recite back to you any of that historical and technical info, however, and you’ll be hard-pressed to get an answer out of me. Having never seen the Rockettes live and in person, I was fascinated and tuned everything else out. Wurlitzer Organ? Roxy Who? Art Deco design? Fascinating hydraulic stage technicalities that were guarded by the government during wartime? Look people, there are 36 perfectly proportioned women on stage dressed as toy soldiers lined up and falling onto each other like dominoes. I can’t be bothered at the moment with listening to anything, I’m enjoying the show! (As a matter of fact, we stayed a bit behind the tour to watch them finish out the act and got a bit lost and in a bit of a pickle with our guide, Joyce, who was very patient while she was chiding us.)

Despite the fact that I didn’t remember a lot of the details, Joyce was an excellent guide. She put excitement and enthusiasm into her history lesson, with zeal that couldn’t be mistaken for cheese or rehearsed. She truly loved talking with us, walking us through as if she were guiding us on a visit through her own house.

At the end of the tour we had the opportunity to ask questions of a Rockette (who was the second tallest in the line at 5’10’’) and have our photos taken with her. I didn’t expect to get so star-struck, but I had a moment.

Funny side note: Try to plan your restroom breaks at another location. Due to the show letting in and out, the line for the women’s room was (typically) about a mile long. I had 10 minutes until my tour left me and a bladder full of hot chocolate. I put on my blinders, and with the assistance of a concessions' employee (and with about 20 other women), we high-tailed it through the men’s room. Some were shocked, some were non-pulsed, and some were intrigued. Nevertheless, I was back in time for the tour and there were no reported accidents!

If you’ve got several days in NYC (or have seen most of the statues and climbed the buildings already), this tour will be a well-spent precious hour.

You are greeted at the entrance by a very polite and informative guide (the lady who took us round was very happy to answer questions and very enthusiastic about the subject) and taken into the plush art-deco interior, where each idea of the design is talked about and explained. You then move on into the auditorium, where, if it's possible, you get to walk on the stage in front of a theatre big enough to hold nearly 6,000 people! You are then taken underneath the stage to see the hydraulic pumps that move the stage sections. These, interestingly, were a very secret piece of engineering in WWII, as their design was used on aircraft carriers! Moving on through the building, you see many photos of shows that have been held there since the 1920s! You are introduced to a current Rockette dancer, and there is a short Q and A about the job with her. Definitely worth the money if you are into theatre-going and interested in shows and musicals.

Great Christmas Show! Love the Rockettes! The show lasts 1.5 hours. Also, do the back stage tour of Radio City and learn a lot about how Radio City began as well as the Rockettes.
Love the show, music, live nativity.

I have to admit that when my friend Kelly first asked if I wanted to go to a Harry Connick, Jr. concert, I was a little unsure. Sixty bucks for a performer I didn't absolutely love? Fortunately, I went along with it and was totally blown away by the musical quality and super fun atmosphere of the entire evening.

From his sultry entrance onto the stage (which was set up like New Orleans’ Bourbon Street) to his charming and funny nature to his incredible vocal and piano skills, Harry was impressive not only to me, but to those who had obviously seen him perform many times over. The makeup of Harry’s band is absolutely incredible—musicians who have played with artists like Wynton Marsalis and B.B. King—what a sound! All of the solos and ensemble playing was dead-on harmonically, technically, and rhythmically. If anyone in the audience wasn’t moved to snap a finger or nod her head to Harry himself, it was the powerful and enlivening jazz sound of his band that did it.

The set was fun and surprisingly varied in genre. There were ditties from Harry’s NoLA album, like Jambalaya and New Orleans, as well as favorites like Hello Dolly, On the Sunny Side of the Street and Workin’ On a Coal Mine. Harry’s ability to impersonate Frank Sinatra’s vocals was unbelievable. His smooth, silky voice slithered from gospel to country to rat pack without a hitch.

In fact, the entire show was pure entertainment—from Harry’s monologue about how he got his "old junky piano" from an NYC shipyard to one of the trombonist’s on-stage marriage proposal to his girlfriend. The soloists clearly enjoyed themselves, playing off of each other in a Charlie-Chaplin-esque manner, and Harry’s hilariously mischievous nature had the crowd roaring.

Radio City Music Hall (www.radiocity.com) is conveniently located in mid-town, which is perfect for out-of-towners arriving by train at Penn Station, and easily accessible from Grand Central, subways, busses and of course cabs. The venue, though beautiful, was a bit stuffy for such a jammin’ concert, but the acoustics certainly did the musicians justice. Our seats were in the first row of the lower mezzanine, and I would definitely recommend orchestra seats for serious fans looking to swoon over their favorite star.

For info on a nice, close bite to eat before seeing a show at Radio City, be sure to check out my review of Pazza Notte.