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The Gazillion Bubble Show
The Gazillion Bubble Show is billed as "the first and only interactive stage production of its kind, complete with fantastic light effects, lasers, and jaw-dropping masterpieces of bubble artistry, this unforgettable extravaganza." Over the past two decades, Fan Yang has explored the fragile and mysterious world of soap bubbles and emerged with a completely new medium, blending art and science to dazzle audiences around the globe.
From November 21 thru January 6, Gazillion Bubble Show will presents it Holiday Spectacular, featuring all-new holiday bubble magic. There will be added performances during this period.
nytheatre.com review
David DelGrosso · February 22, 2007
I have to respect a performer whose every scene partner is composed of the most fragile material I can imagine. With two decades' experience performing, inventing toys, and setting Guinness World Records, Fan Yang has surely forgotten more about bubbles than any of the rest of us will ever know. Performing in New York City for the first time, Yang has created a showcase for his chosen medium that aspires to be a stage spectacular and, at times, succeeds in being exactly that.
The strongest element of The Gazillion Bubble Show is also the simplest: Fan Yang working with his bubbles. With so many years of experience invested in the medium at his fingertips, Yang's command of bubbles reminds me of watching a master stage magician do sleight-of-hand, or perhaps what it would be like to see the virtuoso performance of an alien instrument. One of my favorite moments was probably the easiest for Yang to produce—after making and popping a number of bubbles in the beginning of the show, he sent one sailing off the stage, through that invisible divide between performer and audience, and a boy who looked to be five or six years old stood up in his seat, reached out, and popped it.
A live show of skill onstage is a very watchable, theatrical thing and Yang's tricks build in complexity—from large, simple bubbles to bubbles-within-bubbles, as well as bubbles mixed to turn different colors under special lights and even entire structures built of this incredibly fragile material. For my tastes I could have watched this, enthralled, in complete silence for an engaging and relaxing hour and fifteen minutes.
Unfortunately, as spectacular as I find Yang's bubble work on its own, some other elements are brought to bear on the performance that serve to detract from rather than support Yang's skill. The first and least welcome is a loud, constant soundtrack of music (or perhaps the more appropriate term would be "musak") which does not tend to synch up with the action onstage. It did not sound like an original soundtrack composed for the show, but a background mix of recognizable smooth jazz, New Age and, well, whatever genre Enya comes from, that ends up generalizing the action onstage rather than punctuating it.
The live segments of the show are divided by a series of video packages. The first serves as a capable introduction to Yang, telling how he was inspired by bubbles as a child to begin an exploration that has continued to this day. While that works, the video packages later in the performance slow the momentum by introducing us to Yang again and making us feel like we are being sold a show that we are already watching. These later videos seemed to belong in the lobby rather than on the stage. Yang's own stage presence is open and friendly. He acknowledges that English is not his first language but that doesn't stop him from having an easy rapport with the audience, either as a group, or with the individuals he brings up for interactive segments. Clearly an experienced and confident performer, his stage presence wins us over more than any of the videos do.
There are some sequences in the show in which Yang's bubbles and the stagecraft of lasers, stage lights, and haze combine to great effect. The most memorable sequence is called "Ocean of Bubbles", a sensory overload that truly succeeds in transforming the neutral, industrial New World Stages theatre into a different world. It was great to see the audience, particularly the youngest members, standing in their seats and looking up and all around them. A moment in which live theatre is a magical and exciting place for its youngest audience members is not something to underestimate, and it is in those, fleeting moments in which The Gazillion Bubble Show earns its claim on the word spectacular.
This page updated Wednesday, November 4, 2009 12:49 PM
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