Radio City Music Hall
Art Deco theatre at Rockefeller Center, home of the Rockettes and a 5,960-seat auditorium.
Radio City Music Hall opened on 27 December 1932 as the first building completed at Rockefeller Center, conceived by the impresario Samuel Roxy Rothafel with backing from the Rockefeller family and RCA. Edward Durell Stone shaped the exterior and auditorium while Donald Deskey directed the interiors, commissioning murals, metalwork and furniture from more than thirty artists. The auditorium seats 5,960 beneath a series of receding plaster arches, and its Great Stage measures 144 feet across with three hydraulic elevator sections.
The initial variety format failed, and from 1933 the hall settled into a pattern of film screenings paired with stage spectaculars, a formula it kept for four decades. Threatened with demolition in 1978, the interior was designated a New York City landmark and the building was restored, reopening as a live performance venue. The Rockettes precision dance troupe, resident since 1932, appears in the Christmas Spectacular each winter, and the hall also hosts concerts, comedy, awards ceremonies and the Stage Door Tour.
Highlights
- Auditorium of 5,960 seats under receding Art Deco plaster arches
- The Great Stage, 144 feet wide with hydraulic elevator sections
- Donald Deskey interiors, including the Roxy Suite and grand foyer
- Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, running since 1933
