DaytonDailyNews.com

The man behind the Rockettes' touring holiday show is 1979 Centerville High School graduate Jeff Capitola.

As producer and general manager, he oversees the Radio City Music Hall company's four national tours.

Capitola dreamed of becoming a performer when he set out to earn his BFA degree at Denison University.

Destiny began to shift when he spent a semester off campus, as required, working as an intern for a general management firm on Broadway.

Back on campus and a few days before graduation, he received a job offer to come back to New York.

It wasn't long before he was assistant company manager for a national tour of the musical "Dreamgirls," then company manager for tours of "Cats" (which came through Memorial Hall in Dayton in 1987) and other shows. "I was a very lucky kid," he said.

He's been working with Radio City Music Hall and the Rockettes since 2002. This may be the most exciting and demanding year with the new arena-sized touring production of the holiday show.

"It's big and beautiful. The visual elements are stunning. It takes more than 30 trucks to travel it," he said.

Capitola and supervising director-choreographer Linda Haberman traveled around the country to see arena shows and "measure just what's possible," he said. "We have a rock 'n' roll crew doing this show, and they say it's the biggest they've seen."

He's in charge of purchasing and logistics for "a company of more than 200 that will be away from home for up to three months."

The tour was built in Hershey, Pa., and the technical elements (including an L.E.D. wall and stage with three turntables) were fine-tuned in Cincinnati.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or

tmorris@Dayton

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