Costumes By The Numbers


Photo: MSG Entertainment

The RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR show has 12 scenes, each with a different song and consequently different costumes.  Here’s what you’ll see:

• 267 costumes
• 234 pairs of shoes
• 35 Santa costumes
• 7 costume changes per Rockette
• 2 costumes for the live camels
• More than 100 hats
• Vincente Minnelli (father of Liza, husband of Judy Garland and famous film director of American in Paris and Meet Me in St. Louis) designed the wooden soldier costumes for the 1933 show.  This costume design has been used ever since.
• Wooden Soldier costumes have taken up to 12 hours to make.
• The Wooden Soldier hats are almost 3 feet tall.
• In the scene Santa's Gonna Rock and Roll, 80 pairs of sparkle tights are used per year.  These tights have been custom made and painted by hand to create the sparkle.
• Rockettes wear 2 and a half inch heels, regardless of height.
• Each Rockette uses 9 pairs of shoes in one season
• There have been as many as 3,000 Swarovski crystals in a costume and it has been said that the Rockettes wear “more sparkles than Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry box.”
• There can be up to 13 “dressers” or backstage crew who help the performers with quick changes and keep track of all costumes.
• Since many costume changes take place in just 80 seconds, the changes are just as choreographed as the dance numbers onstage.

Other Fun Facts

• Mimi Swenson wore hundreds of costumes in the 20 years she spent as a Rockette.   She lives in the Cleveland area today.
  
• Russell Markert’s (founder of the Rockettes) tap shoes were bronzed when he retired.
• Bob Mackie (designer for Cher, Barbra Streisand and Tina Turner) has designed a Rockette costume.