Backstage At The Rockettes’ Christmas Show

Holiday cheer is sweeter when you know how it’s made. We start with a rapid-fire tour of the headlines—late-night lore about banned guests, a senator humbled by an elite workout, a baffling DOJ video release, and a quiet leadership shakeup—then step behind the curtain for the real story: a warm, detailed look at the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular and the army of artists who make it glow.

From April auditions to six-week training blocks, two full casts of 42 dancers carry a 90-minute wonderland with over 200 high kicks, eight head-to-toe costume changes, and the kind of split-second trust that only comes from relentless practice. We walk through the backstage choreography—quick-change booths, hand-painted shoes matched to skin tone, the iconic red lip—and the legendary 78-second turnaround that vaults the line from Parade of Wooden Soldiers into New York at Christmas as a full-size double decker bus rolls onstage. Add fairy drones gliding above the audience and you have old-world precision meeting modern stagecraft in perfect sync.

It’s not just the line. More than 200 crew and wardrobe pros power every cue, stitch, and light, keeping the machine tight through two to four shows a day for two months. The scale is staggering, but the spirit is intimate: craft as a promise, joy as the outcome. We share personal memories, geek out on the details, and daydream about interviewing the dancers and the backstage brains who turn timing into magic. Stick around for our holiday question—are you shopping online, in-store, or both?—and tell us how you’re bringing a little spectacle to your season.

If this deep dive into performance, precision, and holiday magic hits the spot, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us. Your notes and stories make our season brighter.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Cold Open And Headlines Tease
• 1:03 Celebrity Bans On The Tonight Show
• 1:33 JD Vance’s SEAL Workout Reax
• 1:54 Epstein Video Confusion
• 2:27 Campus Police Chief Suspended
• 2:43 Shifting To The Rockettes Feature
• 2:58 Personal Rockettes Memories
• 3:32 Auditions, Rehearsals, And Scale
• 4:42 Backstage Chaos And Quick Changes
• 6:17 The 78-Second Turnaround
• 6:40 Drones, Demands, And Daily Grind
• 7:37 Crew Power And Dream Interviews
• 9:01 Listener Question Of The Day
• 10:24 Holiday Sign Off And Schedule

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Well, happy Christmas Eve, Eve. Uh, it's Tuesday, and we I've got a great story for you from the New York Post. I can't wait to read it to you. I love it. But first, I found a bunch of interesting articles this morning, believe it or not. Uh, lots of different things. I'm not gonna read any of them. I'm just gonna tell you about them so you can go find them on my X-File if you would like to read them. Because the one I want to get to and talk about mainly is kind of long and involved, not really involved, but it's good, and I want to read the whole thing to you. Okay, let's see. Uh, the first up is Johnny Carson book reveals the Hollywood icons he banned from the tonight show. Very interesting, and it tells you why they were banned too. Uh, they weren't banned for life. Some of them did get to come back, but there was only when it was a guest host when Johnny wasn't there. Very interesting. Guess who the first one they talked about is Jalen O. And guess who went on to host the damn show? All right, so moving. It's very interesting. Read. Go read it. I think it's great. All right. Um, nope, I'm saving that one for last. JD Vance trains with Navy SEALs in California. He says he feels like he was hit by a freight train. I can imagine he trained with them for 90 minutes. He admitted that he was positive they took it easy on him. But still, they have a couple of pictures in there of him. One of them carrying a log. Looks pretty jacked, if you ask me. I think he did all right. All right, let's see. DOJ. This one is very odd and strange. I don't know what to make of it, and I need your opinion on it. DOJ releases shocking fake video of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide as part of a file dub. Now the video is fake. Why would they release that video? And why would they make one? Maybe they were trying to determine what happened, but why? Why would you do that? You have to go read it. And I think those are the oh, and then get this. This was a very quiet headline. It would it had to, if you weren't looking for it, you'd never find it. Brown places, the Brown University places campus police chief on administrative leave, effective immediately in wake of deadly shooting. Well, no duh. Alright, we need to move on to the story of the day here from the New York Post. I love the Rockets. Yes, we're doing a Christmassy themed type episode because we need to bring you some cheer and good joy, right? Um, secrets of the Rockets, Christmas spectacular, revealed as the post goes backstage. Love this article. Love it. Please go read it. And ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by the Rockets. Wanted to be one until I realized I was not gonna grow past five foot two inches. But I love the Rockets. We did get to see them a f several, several years ago in Nashville at the Opry, like Grando Opry, uh their little place of the that they did their Christmas spectacular. They did the toy soldier thing. I loved it. Oh, I had such a good time to the kids. It was great. All right, it takes a Christmas village. Nothing says the holidays are here in New York City, quite like the Radio City Rockets. Today, more than 72 million people have witnessed the Precision Dance Troupe, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, perform in the Christmas Spectacular. The transport wide-eyed audience to oh sorry, to transport wide-eyed audience members to a 90-minute Christmas wonderland in the legendary Midtown Theater. A ton of work goes in behind the scenes, beginning with a three-day dancer audition of process in April. And the post was recently granted exclusive backstage access to document some of the magical moments normally hidden from the public. I love backstage access. I love anything behind the scenes. Love it. Alright, while adults and children alike watch the show, shows 16 musical number in all from their seats. Backstage, it's a choreographed chaos for the Precision Dance Troop. And they're talking about one of their outfit changes. They have like, well, I'll read it to you. Uh an hour to 90 minutes before the showtime. Each of the Rockets, two casts of 42 dancers each, can be found in their designated dressing room, applying their makeup, including their classic red lip, the Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in the shade Always Red. Well, obviously, I'm gonna have to go get that today. I will put an online order today and go pick it up because I Sephora is right across the street from where I work. Gotta have it. Okay. So styling their signature French twist hairdo and warming up their muscles their muscles to perform over 200 eye high kicks, 200 eye high kicks in nine different numbers. And then it goes on to tell you how how much they do this. Oh, it they gotta be in shape, let me tell you. For each of their eight head-to-toe costume changes, including a different pair of hand painted hand-painted shoes to match each woman's skin tone for every number. Wow. One wardrobe person and is assisting every three dancers in the quick change booths located at the sides of the stage. And there's no room for error because the madness of swapping out hats, fixing hair, touching up lips, and stepping into brand new costumes has to be completed within seconds. Now they've been doing this for years. They are pretty sure they've got it down to a science. The fastest and most impressive is after the Parade of Wooden Soldiers number. Once the curtain goes down, each roquette has 78 seconds, y'all. 78 seconds to hop out of their soldier costumes, which consist of pants so stiff they can stand on their own and three foot tall hats to get ready for the beloved New York at Christmas routine, which features a real full-size double decker bus. Wow, how in the hell did they get the double decker bus in there? They had to have taken it apart. I don't know. How'd they get it on the frickin' stage? That's crazy. Later in the show, the magical Dance of the Frost Fairies number, which was reintroduced four years ago, features fairy drones that fly above the audience, have six different costume styles in six different colors, performing the Christmas spectacular for two months straight, six to seven days a week, two to four times a day, there's no denying that taking on the role of a rocket is physically demanding. Oh my gosh, let me read that again. Performing in the Christmas spectacular for two months straight, six to seven days a week, two to four times a day. Wow, there's no yeah, no kidding. Even the rockettes themselves can be mesmerized by the fast pace they face every day following rigorous training six hours a day, six days a week for six weeks leading up to the November opening night. Holy cow! When I first started with the company back in 2012, I was just so excited to be a part of it. Since then, I've learned so much about the show itself and the inner workings of what it takes to put the show together. Mindy Moeller, a 14-year Rocket veteran, told the Post, God, I wish I could meet these ladies. Oh, I wish I could. I would I would create a whole podcast just for them, and I would go and talk to each and every one of them. Oh my gosh. I would interview each one. Oh, I would love to do that. That would be a dream podcast for me. Oh, I would love to do it. I would have no idea how I could do it, but I would love to do it. Oh my god. Okay. Sorry, I'm getting a little excited. You've got 36 women in a line in each show. You've got 84 women in total, but you've also got 200 members of crew and wardrobe backstage putting the show together. And I want to interview them too. I think they would be really spectacular to interview. All right, I'm not going to finish. They have lots of beautiful pictures in here. Uh, that's pretty much the end of it, I think. Um there was a little bit more, but you know, you can go finish reading it if you like. I oh, how would I even start a podcast? How would I even get in contact with them to do something like this? I was just a nobody. Oh, somebody do it, please. If there's a Rocket podcast out there, let me know. I want to listen to it. Okay, um, I guess that's it. Other than the question of the day, what is the question of the day? Let's see. Okay, forgive me if this has been a question already, but I'm gonna ask it because it's the only thing I can think of right now. Do you oh wait, sorry, for Christmas gifts, are you an online shopper only or do you go out and get the presents? I do a little bit of both this year though. We did do online only. Um, no, I did get one gift out in the real world, out in the wild. Um, but yeah, I mean shopping online makes it really easy, doesn't it? You don't have to go out in that mess. Oh, but anyway, that's the question of the day. Are you probably I guess your answer would probably be a little bit of both. One year though, I did do all the shopping online. But you know, when the kids were little, we used to go out on Christmas Eve, believe it or not. We'd get a babysitter and go out on Christmas Eve and shop for the kids. No, I'm not joking. At least one year we did. I don't know about any of the other I don't know if it was ever I don't know if it was an every year thing. Um, okay, I guess that's it. I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Have a Merry Christmas. I probably won't be back until Monday because I'm off tomorrow. Christmas is Thursday, and I'm off on Friday, and then it's the weekend, so I'll be back on Monday. How about that? Y'all have a good one, happy holidays, merry Christmas. Spread the good message of Jesus. Okay, gotta go. Love y'all. Bye.