Radio City Music Hall, Concert hall in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, US
Radio City Music Hall is a concert hall and theater building within Rockefeller Center in Manhattan that holds more than six thousand people and features an expansive stage with a sunken orchestra level. Interior spaces display polished metals, geometric wall reliefs, and a curved ceiling vault lit by concealed lights, all designed with continuous Art Deco motifs throughout.
Radio City Music Hall opened on December 27, 1932, on land leased from Columbia University that had been intended for a Metropolitan Opera house until those plans were canceled in 1929. Its first program, a stage revue with Ray Bolger and Martha Graham, was replaced on January 11, 1933, by a film-and-stage format beginning with Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen. Regular film screenings ended in 1979; after restoration it reopened in 1980.
The name comes from the Radio Corporation of America, an early tenant of Rockefeller Center whose NBC studios stood just south of the hall. The Rockettes, a precision dance company, are headquartered here, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular has been staged every year since 1933. The Mighty Wurlitzer organ, played during the 1988 Wheel of Fortune tapings, remains part of the hall's fittings.
Tours offer access to the auditorium and some backstage areas on most days, with exact timing varying depending on the event schedule. Seating spans multiple levels, and upper sections require some stairs or the elevator.
The stage uses a system of multiple independent elevators that can move individually or together, allowing elaborate set changes and surprising entrances during shows. The large ceiling vault in the auditorium is deliberately asymmetric to distribute sound evenly and improve acoustics.
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