Hallmark continues to break its holiday movie mold into teeny tiny pieces with A Holiday Spectacular. This movie is a period piece about one woman’s dream of becoming a Rockette starring a ton of Broadway performers, but does it deserve a standing ovation? Or is this spectacle not even worth scoring rush tickets to?
A HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Ginna Claire Mason (Wicked) plays Margaret an heiress in 1958 Philadelphia counting down the days until she marries another Philly socialite. That’s when she takes a gamble and auditions to be one of the Rockettes — and her gamble pays off. Sure, she has to tell her family and fiancé that she’s going to NYC for wedding-related stuff and yeah, she’s never lived on her own before. So what? She’s going to get the experience of dancing with the Rockettes for one holiday season!
But what if it’s not just for one season…? Margaret — now going by Maggie — makes a bunch of friends and quickly adjusts to living in women’s housing and not a mansion. She also keeps bumping into a guy (Derek Klena, Jagged Little Pill) who similarly has lofty ambitions of becoming a photographer, even if his family has a different future in mind for him. So what’s it gonna be, Maggie? Are you gonna stay a Rockette, or are you gonna keep that big rock on your finger and marry a guy you barely know?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The camaraderie between women and mid-century setting gives the whole movie big A League of Their Own vibes — the movie, not the TV show. The TV show was too, I don’t know, historically honest to be compared to A Holiday Spectacular. More on that in a bit.
Performance Worth Watching: Sara Gallo is a scene-stealer as Maggie’s roommate and de facto best friend Sofia. She’s a tough-talking gal from Bensonhurst and Gallo is clearly having a ball playing the part. How could you not?
Memorable Dialogue: When Maggie balks at Sofia having chicken parm delivered to their room at 10 a.m., Sofia retorts, “We rehearse six hours a day, six days a week, and then we do two shows a day for a month straight. That’s a thousand high kicks a day, Maggie. Ya never know when ya might need a late night snack.”
A Holiday Tradition: Set in 1958, this film shows the start of a new real world tradition: the Rockettes appearing as part of the televised Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And we see Maggie perform numbers from the Rockettes’ annual show, The Christmas Spectacular.
Two Turtle Doves: If you’re in the mood for more dancing, albeit in the 21st century, you can hop over to Lifetime and watch Mario Lopez in Steppin’ Into the Holiday.
Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It does in that the Rockettes’ signature show is the Christmas Spectacular and this movie is titled A Holiday Spectacular (presumably to keep people from thinking this is a filmed adaptation of the stage show?). Still, the Rockettes don’t own the word “spectacular.” Having the word “Rockette” in the title would really help this incredibly unique movie stand out. A Rockette’s Dream, A Rockette Christmas, I Want to Be a Rockette for Christmas, A Holiday with the Rockettes, even just The Rockettes Present A Holiday Spectacular would work.
Our Take: Well, this sure was different, wasn’t it? I have to admit that I was incredibly skeptical of Hallmark being able to pull off a period piece set in 1958. I’ve seen plenty of previous Hallmark movies have trouble convincingly setting scenes 20 years ago, so dialing the clock that far back felt like a huge risk — and it resulted in a big reward.
A Holiday Spectacular looks unlike any other Hallmark movie I’ve seen, due in large part to (budget-conscious) recreations of 1950s New York City. First of all, the fact that much — or perhaps all — of the film was shot in NYC helped with the vibe. Knowing that this movie being a period piece meant that no location could be filmed without a temporal overhaul, I kept being surprised when we’d visit yet another store, home, or street. And while a lot of the period clothing looks more like the kind of retro dresses and sweaters one could find on Amazon, they still did the trick. I was pleased to see dance instructor Mr. Matthews (Brian Michael Dunn) in some very Fred Mertz trousers. Those are hard to find on Amazon, believe me. Of course A Holiday Spectacular isn’t as convincing a time warp as Carol or even Back to the Future, but for Hallmark? Call me convinced. Even if the Rockettes weren’t involved, I think this movie could still get away with being called a spectacular.
That’s a good thing too, because there’s actually not as much of the Rockettes as you’d expect. The first big dance montage, at Radio City Music Hall and with the costumes and kicking and everything, doesn’t happen until the halfway point. The actors are only ever filmed from the bust up during the dance numbers, and then they’re lost in a line of Rockettes during the wide shots (because the actors are not on stage). The movie gets a pass there, since these movies have a tight turnaround and there was likely no way to get the cast turned into screen-ready Rockettes. Still, you do leave the film wishing there was more Rockettes content.
In fact, A Holiday Spectacular feels like a first pass at the inevitable Rockettes prestige limited series. This movie leaves the Rockettes’ origins a mystery; they were created 33 years prior to this movie’s 1958 setting. It also ignores the Rockettes’ lack of diversity, which is a big enough part of their legacy to have its own Wikipedia section. As seen in A Holiday Spectacular, though, Black dancers were included in the Rockettes fully 30 years before they were in the real world (Jennifer Jones became the first African American Rockette in 1987). Ultimately it is unquestionably great that the retro Rockettes as seen in this film are diverse, because even though the movie is set in 1958, it’s being seen in 2022. There’s also a startling lack of conflict in the dancers’ day to day lives, not from their apartment manager Rose (she gives nothing more than a look when Maggie breaks or almost breaks curfew) nor from their dance instructor (he’s so understanding and caring and not at all a drill sergeant!). There’s also a noticeable lack of queer characters, which… come on. They do give Mr. Matthews a line that seems coded as him speaking from the gay experience, but still…
The thing is, I didn’t expect a Hallmark movie to accurately depict what life in the Rockettes was really like in 1958. This isn’t Hallmark’s Black Swan or A League of Their Own (the TV series). Then again, I also fully expected modern traffic lights to be visible in the background of every outdoor shot and Hallmark surprised me there.
Still — ! For what it is, which is a period piece holiday romance with spangly outfits, A Holiday Spectacular is a charming movie… as long as you don’t get hung up on cultural anachronisms. I was clearly hung up on some of those anachronisms and I was very much charmed. The camaraderie between the cast feels natural; Maggie and John have a real tangible connection as well as a natural source of conflict; and the film handles the fact that Maggie is an heiress playing poor in NYC for the holidays with a surprising bit of nuance. A Holiday Spectacular is an ambitious film that falls short in some areas, but you can’t fault the film for dreaming big.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Historical nitpicks aside, A Holiday Spectacular continues to broaden the definition of what a Hallmark movie can be.
