#Radio City Rockettes end season early due to COVID worries

The holiday kick lines are going dark at Radio City Music Hall amid worries about an uptick in COVID cases — for the entire rest of the season.

MSG Entertainment, which produces the annual Rockettes show, said late Friday that it would end the show’s run for the rest of the year.

It’s only the second time since 1933 that the Rockettes have canceled a season: Although 2020’s shows were canceled altogether because of COVID worries, this year’s season lasted for seven weeks and 100 shows before the curtain came crashing down Friday evening. It had been set to run through Jan. 2.

Earlier in the day, MSG had announced all four of Friday’s shows would be canceled “due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases” among people involved in the Rockettes production.

But late in the day, MSG pulled the plug on the entire rest of the season.

“We regret that we are unable to continue the Christmas Spectacular this season due to increasing challenges from the pandemic,” MSG said in a statement. “We had hoped we could make it through the season and are honored to have hosted hundreds of thousands of fans at more than 100 shows over the last seven weeks.”

People who held tickets will get refunds, MSG said, noting that the company hoped to welcome fans back to the annual Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular in 2022.

The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes are only the latest live act in New York to cancel shows due to a positive coronavirus test, though among the shows that have canceled on Broadway, they’ve so far only closed temporarily for days at a time — not for the entire season.

The cancellations come as worry over the Omicron variant is washing over the city, with long lines at testing sites and a sharp increase in the reported rate of cases.

This week, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” “Hamilton,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “Ain’t Too Proud,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” and “Freestyle Love Supreme” all had to close their curtains temporarily because of sick performers and crew.

The annual Rockettes shows — a New York institution since 1933 — were canceled for the first time ever in 2020 amid the first wave of COVID infections.

MSG Entertainment, which owns the glamorous Radio City Music Hall where the Rockettes perform, made the decision to close the curtain on the popular show last year amid uncertainty tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

But in October of this year, the Rockettes came kicking back — beginning rehearsals for this year’s slate of shows, which had been set to run through Jan. 2. Performances began Nov. 5.

All of the performers and crew participating in this year’s show had been vaccinated, the production said as it began rehearsals.

The Friday announcement of the show cancellations came after a vaccine-card controversy: The city said Thursday it would be sending inspectors to Radio City Music Hall in Midtown, after complaints that it wasn’t enforcing the vaccination rule for kids ages 5 to 11, according to reports.

Hours later, Madison Square Garden, which owns Radio City, said it would comply.