If you’re looking for an off-Broadway experience that appeals to even the littlest theatre-goers, the Gazillion Bubble Show is a perfect family choice.
It’s literally a show about bubbles — from their soapy humble beginnings to breathtaking bubble formations. So who’s behind this bounty of bubbles, you ask?
Bubble Backstory
Fan Yang spent twenty years as a Master of Bubbles, performing his bubble skills for audiences across the globe. In 2007, he brought his family act to New York City, where the Yangs opened the Gazillion Bubble Show. The bubble art gene must run in the family, since Fan, his wife Ana, children Deni and Melody, and brother Jano all perform in this spectacular show, and have broken several Guiness World records with their bubble creations.
Welcome to New York
The Gazillion Bubble Show tours throughout the year, most recently at Dollywood and in Toronto. But the show is permanently housed in the New World Stages Theatre in Hell’s Kitchen, where it’s been since its first performance in January of 2007. Since then, it has garnered the attention of high-profile fans and made appearances on shows like Oprah and The Today Show.
My son and I were invited out to see the Gazillion Bubble Show for ourselves, and it was a truly delightful experience. Ana Yang performed during the show we attended, which ran a little over one hour without an intermission. New World Stages has a spacious, modern layout and a hassle-free entrance/exit that make for a smooth experience when attending shows with children. I’ve seen several shows at this venue, and it’s a great place to get young kids acclimated to the theatre experience.
Performance Details
Ana Yang is a bubble master who is known as the greatest female bubble artist in the world. The beginning of the show started with Ana blowing bubbles with her breath through a few small tools — and even her bare hands! She carefully approaches each trick with what is clearly a scientific formula to her craft.
Besides creating the beautiful bubbles, Ana knows how to manipulate them in amazing ways that defy physics. She also uses non-toxic smoke bubbles which, when blown, appear as opaque white spheres that explode into magical puffs of smoke when popped. (They were my favorite!) Bubbles are a fascinating representation of liquid and gas, which made the entire show remind me of one big science experiment!
About a third of the way through the show, Ana’s human-blown bubbles are enhanced with more music, light, and bubble machines that covered the entire theatre with bubbles — a gazillion of them, you might say!
A few participants were chosen from the audience at various points in the show, including one time when Ana enveloped a few small children in a giant bubble. If you aren’t picked, there’s also a “Me in a Bubble” photo op before and after the show, which allows you to pose in a giant bubble and receive a photo of your memory for $20. It was fun for my kiddo and me and a great keepsake from our experience!
Simple Joys of Childhood
This show has a simple concept; there was only one performer on stage and it wasn’t overdone with excessive music or stimuli. St first I wasn’t sure it would hold most children’s attention, but I was so pleasantly surprised to see how attentive the young audience members were! From toddlers to tweens, they were laser-focused on Ana as she carefully performed each trick, fascinated by everything she was able to do.
I loved watching the looks of pure joy and awe on my son’s face and the faces of all these amazed children! And the adults couldn’t help but smile at the mesmerized children’s delight. Bubbles represent the purity of childhood, when something so simple brings out so much joy.
Seating
You may be wondering what seats are best for this show, and I paid attention to the bubble trajectory just for you! As Ana blew bubbles into the crowd, I noticed that most of them fell in the front center of the audience.
We were seated in the fifth row center and had a great vantage point, but most of the human-blown bubbles landed in the first three center rows. This is also the section from which most of the young audience participants were chosen. So if your child really wants to be covered in bubbles or pop more of them, I’d stay away from the left and right sections and recommend the first three center rows. Later in the show when the bubble machines were added into the show, bubbles fell over the entire theatre. If you sit closer to the back, you’re guaranteed to get some of these machine-blown bubbles, but you may not be popping any of the human-blown bubbles at the start of the show.
The theatre was covered in the machine-blown bubbles several times throughout the show, with the kids ecstatically screaming for “more” after each time. With the upbeat music and colorful lights, at one point the show resembled a kid-friendly rave!
I loved all this energy, as well as seeing the dark theatre becoming covered in glowing, iridescent bubbles as multicolored laser lights bounced around the room. While we enjoyed this aspect of the show, it’s something to keep in mind if you or your child is sensitive to loud cheering or moving lights.
A Gazillion Smiles
Here’s a fact about kids: they love bubbles! The uniqueness, simplicity, and fleeting beauty of bubbles make them mesmerizing to children. And what kid doesn’t love “catching” and popping a shiny bubble as it floats by?
I truly appreciated being able to experience such a unique show with my nine-year-old. He smiled throughout the entire show and called it “incredible.” He’s been to several Broadway and off-Broadway shows, and yet he called this “the best show” he’s ever seen.
In an age of electronics and overstimulation, it made me feel good to see how happy something as simple as bubbles still makes children. Being immersed in a bubble world is not something you get to experience everyday, so if you think it will make your kid giddy too, you can find tickets at the Gazillion Bubble Show website. Watching so many children squeal with delight as bubbles floated all around them reminded me of the simple joys of childhood, and it’s a feeling we adults all need to witness more often.
What Lara Wrote 