Every Christmas, one of the many attractions which draw people to New York City is the Radio City Rockettes. With their many impressive dances and costume changes, the Rockettes have become a world-renowned act which have wowed the audiences at Radio CIty Music Hall for almost 100 years.

However, like many shows and attractions in New York CIty, the Rockettes could not perform last year due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. With loosened restrictions this year, and with many other Broadway shows reopening their operations, many families hoped to return to Radio CIty Music Hall this year to enjoy the Rockettes once again. However, after multiple infections throughout the production, the Rockettes officially announced on December 17 that they would be cancelling the rest of their shows for the season “due to increasing challenges because of the pandemic ”.

“We regret that we are unable to continue the Christmas Spectacular this season,” the production said Friday in a press release.
With this being the second Christmas since the start of the pandemic, many believed that the New York CIty Christmas festivities would be able to stay open with few disturbances. However, especially since the emergence of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, many shows and attractions have suffered from cancellations, despite their being a vaccine mandate for all Broadway performers and crew members. According to The New York Times, other popular shows such as Aladdin, Hamilton, and Ain’t Too Proud have had to cancel a large number of shows for the holiday season because of breakthrough cases in the production.

Radio City Music Hall did assure audiences that they would refund tickets for the cancelled shows, but that won’t be enough for many audiences who were hoping to get back to some semblance of normal this holiday season. However, this may be a stark reminder to many that COVID-19 still poses a threat to public health, and that audiences should be careful before they consider gathering in large crowds.