NEW YORK — Radio City Music Hall’s “New York Spring Spectacular,” the venue’s first spring show since 1997 that features the Rockettes and many others, wants to make a big fashion statement.
Weinstein Live Entertainment, which produces the show along with Madison Square Garden Entertainment, helped secure the involvement of Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen and Isaac Mizrahi to create costumes for the show’s fashion segment, a tribute to New York Fashion Week. In the scene, female lead and Tony Award-winning actress Laura Benanti suggests that the ensemble attend a fashion show — as the stage transforms into a moving catwalk — and the 36 Rockettes strut down the runway wearing costumes designed by each of the three designers. Von Furstenberg, Posen and Mizrahi make cameos during the scene via video voice-overs.
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The production, which also stars Derek Hough, Jared Grimes and Lenny Wolpe, features additional voice work by Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Bella Thorne, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, among others.
None of the designers are novices in creating costumes for the stage. Von Furstenberg previously dressed the Rockettes for a performance at Vienna’s Life Ball in 2010, and Mizrahi has designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera, the American Ballet Theater and the San Francisco Ballet, to name a few. Posen was tapped to design costumes in 2013 for “Private Dancer,” a play based on the life of Rita Hayworth.
“I’ve done millions of dance costumes, from opera to Broadway, but the Rockettes, with that sort of precision line-dancing, are iconic in their own genre,” Mizrahi said. “I’ve always looked up to them as role models for women. I think they [embody] this great mix of a sexy image of a woman, but also a very empowered woman at the same time. They really do strike that balance. And it’s also this great image of a healthy woman — they’re robust, and I love that.”
Mizrahi’s colorful designs — a short dress style that he pulled from his early Nineties runway archives — feature photorealistic flower prints inspired by Irving Penn photographs. Von Furstenberg riffed on a mini version of her signature wrap dress in floral and graphic prints, while Posen’s structured looks come in blue and violet taffeta with voluminous, detachable skirts.
“Designing for something as iconic to Americana as the Rockettes is such a privilege for a New Yorker like myself,” Posen said.
The show, which began previews on March 12 and opens officially on March 26, will run through May 3.