The high-kicking Rockettes are reaching new heights.
At $25, red-sequined Rockette dolls are the hottest-selling ticket at the Radio City Avenue Store, a specialty boutique raking in brisk sales on items bearing the Rockette and Radio City logo.
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It’s all part of a new way of doing business at Radio City Music Hall, and merchandising the Radio City name.
“This is a competitive industry. We have to reinvent ourselves all the time. That’s why, in just one year alone, we opened the Radio City `Christmas Spectacular’ in its first expansion market ever in Branson, Mo.,” said James McManus, president and chief operating officer of Radio City Music Hall Productions.
“And right here, on Sixth Avenue, we opened the very first Radio City Avenue Store. These were just two of the new concepts in a year which was our best ever,” he said.
The retail boutique, adjacent to the Art Deco landmark at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, is cashing in on the licensed name frenzy best exemplified by the recent arrival to the city of such megatheme stores as the Warner Bros. Studio Stores and the Sony Arcade.
Though compact at 600 square feet, the store attracts celebrities such as Linda Ronstadt, Jon Secada, Gloria Estefan and Diana Ross, who pop in after concerts.
RCMHP, a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Group, went full-force with its aggressive marketing strategy to spread the household name of Radio City far and wide last year when the annual Christmas show debuted in Branson, for the first time in the theater’s 63-year-history. More recently, it took the “Radio City Music Spectacular” to Las Vegas.
And recent promotional deals with retail giants such as Nobody Beats the Wiz and sponsorship deals with Haagen Dazs and others are also catapulting the Radio City brand name to a global level.
The production company was formed 15 years ago, around the time the theater was declared a national landmark, to shift the business focus to a mixed entertainment company. It has evolved into a global entertainment company focusing on producing a variety of entertainment venues.
Key to the success of the Radio City Avenue Store are thousands upon thousands of visitors who get a behind-the-scenes peek at the theater during the Grand Tour, the last stop of which is the boutique.