Not so Spectacular

On Saturday night I saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

I was ready for a fantastic night of all things Christmas! The show was getting rave reviews in the newspaper and they even added ten more shows than they had originally offered, which also sold out immediately.

First, my parents and my friend and her parents had an amazing dinner at Maggiano’s at South Coast Plaza. I had never been there and the food was delicious! I loved the atmosphere, the décor, the food, and our amazing waiter, Charles. He kept those cherry cokes coming…

After dinner, it was on to the show…

And…it was, well, weird.

Weird because there was a dance number with a ton of dancers in bear suits, rat suits, and more bear suits. There were bear soldiers, bear ballerinas with tutus and bows…I felt like I was having a weird Christmas dream.

Weird because Santa’s elves were five little people. I felt strange watching little people play elves. One of the elves was the “cool” head gangster elf, with sunglasses. Yikes. They also dressed up in mini snowmen outfits and kind of waddled around the stage. Is that allowed? Isn’t that mocking and degrading? There was even a little person in our section attending the show! AWKWARD…

Weird because some of the outfits that the dancers wore were so ugly. I was expecting a glamorous, New York, swanky Christmas show. But no. Think Christmas on acid. Neon colors do not go with Christmas. Nice try, people. Fire that costume designer, stat, especially if he/she was also responsible for the blindingly sequined poinsettia outfits that some of the Rockettes had to wear. It was Christmas meets Dream Girls for a second…

Weird because I thought we were seeing a Christmas show starring the Rockettes, you know…like how it was advertised…and they only did a few numbers. I understand that their dances are demanding and they have a lot of costume changes, but I felt like I hardly saw them. When they actually were on stage, they were very impressive.

What was NOT weird was the ending scene of the nativity. Thank you, Radio City, for reminding everyone of the true meaning of Christmas. It was a touching way to end the show, and the live camels were cool.