THE THEATRE

Rothafeller Center

Focus of U.S. theatrical attention last week was a great grey pylon which strikes the earth where Manhattan's Sixth Avenue Elevated fences off 50th and 51st Streets--the Radio City Music Hall of Rockefeller Center. Wags had already dubbed the locale of the new theatre, whose 6,200 seats make it the world's largest, the "Rothafeller" Center, for celebrated Showman Samuel Lionel ("Roxy") Rothafel was to produce this week a monster variety bill twice daily.

The opening production had a Brobdingnagian minstrel show banked high on the mammoth stage, with scenery and costumes by Robert Edmond Jones, resident designer. Mr. Jones had also prepared a set for the battle of Fort McHenry where, 'mid Roxy's red glare, Francis Scott Key composed the national anthem.

From his seat in the middle of the orchestra, Roxy himself, surrounded by confusion, secretaries, yes-men, busboys with food, had spent six weeks directing great groups of choristers and dancers. There was a dancing chorus of 48 "Roxyettes;" a ballet of 80; a chorus of 100 voices. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.