Photo courtesy of Gazillion Bubble Show.

Side note: I wrote about the Gazillion Bubble Show when I started this blog in 2010. It’s funny looking back at this post – it was one of the first shows I ever covered. When I was asked to update my review, I realized that my own kids are now too old to appreciate bubbles, so I respectfully sent one of our contributors, Lisa Gerstel Zach. It sounds like it had the same impact on her daughter as it did on mine so many years ago…

When I asked my 3-1/2 year old daughter what she thought of Gazillion Bubble Show, she called it the”BEST SHOW EVER!” and so it seemed to all the other kids and many of the adults in the audience.

Bubbles Galore

Bubbles have been a big part of her life: bubbles in the sink, bubbles in the park, bubbles in the bath, enjoying the bubble creating street performers. But I was skeptical, how you could engage an audience of potentially fidgety toddlers for 60 plus minutes with bubbles?

The Yan Family, internationally celebrated bubble masters and holders of many Guinness World Records, has done just that. They create an amazing immersive experience that had my 3.5 year old mesmerized and begging to go on stage, and she is NOT that kid. She’s has seen a lot of shows for such a young one and this has been her favorite by far!

The bubbles expand, they float, they transport and they brought such joy as young and old reach and stretch to touch the gazillions of bubbles as they float by.

My daughter is already asking if we can go back and take her friends.

This a guest post written by writer Lisa Gerstel-Zach, a diverse and seasoned executive who has spent her career in Children’s and Family Entertainment via Publishing, Live Events and Broadcast before stepping back to take a much earned reprieve from the Corporate world in order to reinvent herself and remember why she moved to New York. She lives in the latest hip neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Disclosure: Lisa Gerstel Zach was provided with complimentary tickets to facilitate this review. All opinions are her own.

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Last week I was invited to see the new Broadway musical Tuck Everlasting and I jumped at the opportunity. I’m a huge fan of Claudia Shear and Tim Federle, co-writers of the new play, and the story’s tag line and premise intrigued me. After all, wouldn’t it appeal to you: If you could live forever, would you?

The play explores this theory in a the form of a musical fairytale. A beautiful set, expert choreography and memorable score aid and brilliant acting aid the storytelling, and it all adds to the play’s fantasy theme. The story revolves around the Tuck family, who after having drunk a particular batch of water, inherited the ability to live forever. Their physical beings remain the same, meaning they don’t age along with the rest of the world. As we encounter their world, we experience the painful realities of not living life like a normal person. The Tucks have watched loved ones die too soon and have had people walk away from them for no reason other than the fact that their lives are just too complicated and unusual to fathom.

The little girl who encounters them is called Winnie Foster, played by Sarah Charles Lewis, who happens upon the family and must make the choice of whether or not to drink the water and live forever. She falls in love with the family so it is a difficult choice. She also must spend time avoiding the play’s villain, played by Terrance Mann, who I adore having seen him in various revivals over the last few years including Pippin, who wants to expose the Tucks to the world. Lewis and Mann are excellent, as are the rest of the cast that includes Andrew Keenan-Bolger of “Newsies,”Carolee Carmello, Michael Park, Fred Applegate, Michael Wartella, Valerie Wright, Robert Lenzi and Pippa Pearthree.

The play ends with a ballet, depicting the future of Winnie, very much in the vein of the Six Feet Under finale. It wasn’t my favorite way to end the show, but I appreciate the interpretation, and I am sure any child over the age of 12 would appreciate the optimistic ending of this hopeful play.

Giveaway

Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary tickets to see Tuck Everlasting, but as always, all opinions are my own.

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This a guest post written by writer Lisa Gerstel-Zach: A diverse and seasoned executive who has spent her career in Children’s and Family Entertainment via Publishing, Live Events and Broadcast before stepping back to take a much earned reprieve from the Corporate world in order to reinvent herself and remember why she moved to New York. She lives in the latest hip neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Did you ever think perhaps you were born to the wrong musical era…the music of my generation just doesn’t speak to me in the way the songs of Carole King’s era. Yes, often Carole and her husband Gerry Goffin’s collaborations were considered teen girl bop, but this bop had a soul and the evolution of Carole’s voice has a depth and honesty that pulls at my heartstrings.

Beautiful, The Carole King Musical on Broadway illuminates Carole’s early story as she juggles life as a struggling young mother, wife, collaborator and composer celebrating personal successes and failures. The audience was entranced as the wonderful cast, especially Chillina Kennedy, as Carole, embodied the Shireille’s, the Drifters, and other era notables and as we bore witness to Carole’s moving search for her own voice, culminating in a triumphant return home, home to Carnegie Hall. This show really provided all elements key to a successful musical, love, tears, relationships, friendships, and off course amazing music.

Source: Broadway.com

The show was a fantastic homage not only to a supremely talented individual but also to the spirit to forge ahead and follow a dream. Reminding us all that we must follow the music within us.

“Feh, what’s with the music of today?” I can almost hear my grandparents admonish my parents. While they weren’t exactly part of the beatnick generation or anything as shocking as Elvis’s hips, I wonder if I will use similar sentiments when I speak to my daughter as she explores the playlist of her life. Until that time I will try to influence it…

“You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face, and show the world all the love in your heart, then people gonna treat you better. You’re gonna find, yes, you will, that you’re beautiful as you feel.”

― Carole King

Head to the show’s web site for ticket information and check it out at the Sondheim Theater 124 West 43^rd Street.

Disclosure: Lisa was provided with complimentary tickets to facilitate this review. All opinions are her own.

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Guest writer Liat Ginsberg is a mother and former journalist for the Israeli newspaper, Maariv. She has taught at the Film and Media Department at Hunter College.

Most of us know that watching a movie with an African american (black) crowd, or going to a African american church is a different experience. Now you can add to it going to a circus with African american audience and many African american performers. It’s a wild, fun and very interesting experience. Imagine sitting in huge African american church listening to great voices and dancers and add to it performers doing very daring twirling bicycles, disco dancing pachyderms, free-flying aerial, flipping canines, and extreme motorsports and much more.

UniverSoul Circus

UniverSoul Circus is a highly interactive combination of circus arts, theater, and music  including Pop, Classic R&B, Latin, Hip Hop, Jazz and Gospel. It’s a different circus for many reasons: it’s interactive, the audience is part of the act and people are encouraged to dance and sing on stage or between the isles.

In many circuses you will notice very talented stone faced acrobats who rarely interact with the audience. In the Universoul Circus, the acrobats look like they love what they are doing. They must go to work with a smile. They are  engaging and encourage the audience to have fun as much as they do.

Universoul Circus is for every age. It’s not easy to find an entertainment to take the kids to, that grown-ups will also enjoy. In our case, we enjoyed it as much as the kids.

The audience members in the Bronx were so awesome. We couldn’t stop laughing. At times. we wondered if they weren’t ringers. If you volunteer to go on stage, expect to be asked to dance and have rhythm.

In addition, you will witness Olate Dogs from Chile (winners of AMERICA’S GOT TALENT), Ethiopian Pole Act from Ethiopia, Aerial Duet from Colombia, Bicycle Tricks from China, Airborne Motorcycles from California, Caribbean Dance and Limbo from Trinidad and Tobago, Russian Bar from Cuba and dancing Elephants from the United States, a multicultural, multinational mix of talent.

My family was very impressed by the Airborne Motorcyclist. It will leave you in awe. The riders almost touched the ceiling with their motorbikes. I was wondering, they are so lucky their mothers were not in the crowd, they would have definitely fainted.

When I asked my six-year old daughter what was her favorite part, she replied, “I loved the puppies but did not like the elephants. I felt bad for them, they looked sad.” I told her that many countries have banned live animal in circuses.

My daughter also complained about the very long intermission, almost 45 minutes, which gave many kids the opportunity to ride a pony for 10 dollars. Not a bad thing for a child.

And, of course, there are photos with the clown for 10 dollars and you can also purchase light up toys .

Our family loved Universoul Circus, I recommend it as great family activity,  your kids will remember it for years to come. Here’s info if you want to get tickets:

UNIVERSOUL CIRCUS performs in five different venues:

THE BRONX

March 30 thru April 10, 2016

50 E. 150th St., Bronx, NY 10451 (Across from Bronx Terminal Market at 149th St. and Exterior St. Next to the bridge)

BROOKLYN

April 12-24, 2016

3159 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, NY 10451 (Floyd Bennett Field @ Aviator Sports. Just down from Kings Plaza Mall)

QUEENS

April 27-May 15, 2016

Roy Wilkins Park, Merrick Blvd. and Baisley Blvd., Jamaica, NY  11434

NEWARK

May 18-30, 2016

430 Broad Street, Newark, NJ  07102 (Across from Broad Street Train Station next to the Riverfront Bears Stadium)

Visit www.universoulcircus.com for more info, show times, and schedules.  Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000. Ticket prices range from $16 through $40.  Prices vary by venue and by day.

Disclosure: Liat received these tickets on a complimentary basis, but all opinions are her own.

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Every now and then comes along a Broadway show that takes me by surprise. I go in to the theater wondering how I will feel when I leave and whether I will recommend it to anyone. Will it sweep me up and transport me into another world where I can escape my daily routine and take me to that faraway dreamy place I hope to land whenever I take in a show?

My most recent Broadway experience, Bright Star, did all this but I must admit that it took time to get me there. Written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the show is a bit of a sureal piece of fiction based on reality. It has an explosive plot twist at the end of act one that left me reeling in my seat. Prior to that moment, I was ambivalent about the show and where it was taking me. But that one moment changed everything and during act 2, I was completely riveted.

And then I started to realize the power of what was going on before me….the music, the dancing, the talent on that stage. With the book written by Steve Martin and the songs written by Edie Brickell, there are banjos, guitars and violins playing the score, something I may not have been used to at first but I realized at the end that it all worked really, really well and set out to do what it meant to – tell a powerful story that left me and every audience member shedding a tear…or two…of three.

Set in North Carolina between the years of 1923 and 1945-1946, the show revolves around the experiences of two characters, both writers: Carmen Cusack’s Alice Murphy, an editor of a fictionalized magazine, the Asheville Southern Journal, and Billy Cane played by A.J. Shively, a young man back from World War II who dreams of having his stories published in her periodical. Through a series of flashbacks, their lives pivot and come crashing into each other’s and the results are electrifying. Along the way, we are treated with beautiful songs (Brickell’s lyrics are truly beautiful).

The music is played by an onstage bluegrass band conducted by Rob Berman, which brings the show even closer to our hearts with its interactive, up close and personal feel. The cast is also perfection, which aids the play at certain moments but cheers to Cusack who is marvelous – there is no other way to describe her. The set, designed by Eugene Lee, is also pretty spectacular, showcasing a wood cabin on wheels. The result puts audience members directly into the backwoods of North Carolina, a place I must admit I’ve never been to, despite the fact that I’m a Georgia girl.

If you want to see the show, please use this discount code when you book: BSBLOG303. Tickets are as low as $39 for performances thru June 12th here.

Disclosure: I was at the show as press. However, all opinions are my own.

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Every now and then, my tween and I take time out and head to NYC, a mere 15 miles away from where we live, for a bit of city life. A former urbanite and a Broadway junkie, I often crave the city and there is nothing more fun than experiencing a night in a hotel with my 12 year-old daughter. It gives us a chance to absorb a bit of culture, eat good food and literally take time out, away from our daily routines.

Our recent jaunt to the city included a stay at The Muse, A Kimpton Hotel, and it was pretty much perfection. The hotel is centrally located, just a block from the best shows on Broadway and Times Square. We took the train to Grand Central and just strolled a few blocks to get there, stopping for a quick bite at one of our favorite restaurants, Xian, for some of the best and cheapest Chinese food in the city.

We have had very good experiences with Kimpton Hotels, so we had nothing but good expectations about our visit. The Muse was bound to be nothing short of what we had experienced, having had stayed in Kimpton Hotels in Virginia, California and other American cities. The hotels always have a modern flare and amenities that make travel a little bit easier, ones that appeal to kids.

The Muse Welcome

Sure enough, when we walked into The Muse, they were preparing hot chocolate and wine for guests, available daily from 5-6pm. We were smitten with our hotel room, one of 181 guest rooms and 19 suites.The guest rooms are stylish, with bold pop art decorative pillows and silvery blue walls. They match the modern, upbeat spirit of NYC. We had a king-sized bed in a suite with a sitting room, Wifi access, a lovely bathroom with a rainwater shower head and pop-up reading lights. As a member of Kimpton’s member loyalty program, we had complimentary Wifi.

A Family-Friendly Hotel

The Muse just introduced two new programs to cater to its youngest guests.  The 2-night Inner Artist Package, an exclusive partnership with The Children’s Museum, offers museum admission for a family of four, private art lesson, and a kid-friendly clay set as an in-room amenity for kids to unleash their inner Basquiat or Picasso.  The “Mini Muse” amenity program accommodates kids with complimentary morning chocolate milk, nightly juice of sparkling cider, kid-sized animal print robes and an organized Scavenger Hunt!

Our Night on the Town

Our list of things to do was a mile long, but we managed to narrow it down. There’s so much to do right outside the hotel. We started our evening at Junior’s for a slice of real NYC cheesecake and then went shopping at the Disney store and Forever 21 (stores stay open REALLY late in Times Square). Then we ended up backstage at Hamilton, a show we’ve seen and loved, and met a few members of the cast. It was truly a great night, despite the fact that it was the coldest night of the year!

The bottom line: The Muse is a great getaway for families. We loved enjoying NYC but we also loved hanging out in the room, which was comfortable and cozy with great appeal to a tween. The hotel staff was extremely helpful, the amenities were top notch and it’s a considered a value compared to other accommodations.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary stay at The Muse to facilitate this review and others, but all opinion are my own.

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Before you bring your kids to new play The Very Hungry Caterpillar, created by Jonathan Rockefeller and based on the books written by Eric Carle, you have to prepare them that the show is about four different books which The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the last of those books. If not, your kids are going to drive you crazy asking tirelessly, “Where is the hungry caterpillar?”

The four books are: The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, The very lonely firefly, Mister Seahorse, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

About the The Very Hungry Caterpillar

In The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, the first thing you’ll notice is the bright colors. The audience is guided to pay attention to every color on the stage through the blank white stage. Even the puppeteers’ wear uniforms of white overalls. You will feel as if you are in a field of snow with colorful creatures walking graciously.  The colors and the puppets look just like in the book.

Kids learn colors and use of their imagination. Each time the music changed we tried to guess what animal the artist would draw next: the green lion, pink rabbit, black polar bear, purple fox, or orange elephant who were made from puppets and walked gracefully on the stage.

My daughter noticed that the actor did not really draw the pictures and said enthusiastically, “I saw him, he did not draw the picture, that was pretend, he just turned the page”. Luckily, she only whispered it.

For toddlers, it was magical, most kids in the audience were glued to the stage, the colors, gentle music, the soft voices of the actors, the familiarity of the pictures and very slow movements made it familiar and interesting.

In Mister Seahorse, we are introduced to many nurturing sea creatures fathers, as if the seahorses came to teach us that fathers are as caring as mothers.

In The Very Lonely Firefly, a newly hatched lonely firefly takes us on his journey in the dark to seek friendship. It’s not easy for toddlers to find friends, not to mention adults.

And then begins the familiar caterpillar story we have hungrily waited for.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar travels through the days of the week expanding his diet and his size. Soon he isn’t a little caterpillar any more.The younger kids were mesmerized, the older kids, who forgot the details of the book guessed which fruit the caterpillar ate next. The blueberries were very popular.

The play was very true to the books. It’s also great for a first theater event, good for babies and their older siblings who like to show off how much they know.

The show is playing from now to 3/27: Saturday at 11am & 2pm; Sunday 12pm & 3pm at 304 West 47th Street.

Tickets are $49.50 -$65.50 (Premium Seats) and can be purchased by visiting ticketcentral.com or by calling 212.279.4200. For more information visit HungryCaterpillarShow.com.

Disclosure: Tickets were complimentary to facilitate this review.

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Forgive the silence once again, but life has been busy. With a home renovation, a full client list and kid obligations THROUGH THE ROOF, there has been little time to do many of the things I love. I look forward to moving back home so I can once again sustain my heavy appetite of culture and travel wanderlust.

From Traveling…

But my adventures haven’t stopped completely. This past weekend, I was a guest of the Mont Tremblant tourist board and got to thoroughly explore (and ski) this amazing part of Canada. Stay tuned for that coverage here on the blog and elsewhere. I’ve been attending plenty of press events in NYC, including a fab one for See Australia last week with the sexy Chris Hemsworth in attendance. And I’ve been writing. You can find my latest on Yahoo Travel from last month on How to Celebrate the Holidays in New York City; my first published piece on one of my favorite blogs called Live.Do.Grow on Finding Wellness in Ireland; a piece I loved writing on the Best-Kept Secrets of NYC for Families on Minitime; and a latest and greatest updated article on the Best New York Restaurants with Kids on Ciao Bambino. My family and I also recently spent a fun-filled weekend at Woodloch Resort in the Poconos.

To Broadway

My cultural adventures haven’t ceased completely either. I saw Beautiful on Broadway last month and was enraptured by the life and music of Carole King. And I’ve been watching a lot of TV, most recently Difficult People on Hulu and Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon. I’m still obsessed with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin and Younger and I long for OITNB and Transparent to start new seasons.

To Sundance

And in other news, a film I helped out on in its very early stages not only made it to Sundance but was picked up by Sony. Congrats to the gals at Broadstreet Pictures for their successful debut of EQUITY.

I’ve met some wonderful people in this space and gone to some wonderful places. The truth is in these posts.

Stay tuned to this space for a wrap-up on my Mont Tremblant visit this week.

Cheers.

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I’m a big fan of the annual Orchid Show at The NY Botanical Garden, and I’m thrilled to be hosting a giveaway to send a family to experience it for themselves.

The year 2016 marks the 125th Anniversary of the founding of Garden. Since 1891 NYBG has been a museum of plants dedicated to achieving excellence in horticulture, education, and plant research and conservation. Today it is one of the great cultural institutions in the world, a preeminent center for botanical research, a natural treasure for visitors of all ages, and a leader and national model for plant-based education.

This landmark year is filled with exciting events that highlight the many facets of the Garden’s mission. The NYBG Orchid Show opens on February 27 and runs through April 17, 2016. The inspiration for this year’s exhibition is the 19th-century craze sparked by a single orchid bloom, which came to be known as Orchidelirium. Visitors to the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will be transported on an epic journey that engages all of the senses and underscores the allure and intrigue of these exquisite beauties.

The show is truly a New Yorker’s defining moment, and the experience will just add to the pride that you have in this incredible city that we live in. And now, right here on The Culture Mom, you can enter to win FOUR tickets to @NYBG Orchid Show.

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN TIX TO THE @NYBG Orchid Show:

• Comment here and let me know how you engage your children in nature.
• Tweet this message: “Hope I win the @NYBG Annual Orchid Show giveaway from http://bit.ly/1zf1TXV via @hollychronicles”

Contest ends midnight Eastern time, Monday, February 1st.  The four packs need to be used before the show ends on April 17th, 2016. The winner will have 24 hours to accept their prize.

For more information on the NYBG Orchid Show, please visitnybg.org.

Disclosure: These tickets were provided to me complimentary for this giveaway but I was not compensated for this post.

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In preparation for another story, I saw Beautiful: The Carole King Musical last night, and I have only one question: what took me so long?

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

In 2-1/2 hours, I learned so much about not only Carole King but also the history of rock and roll. Did you know that “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, penned with Gerry Goffin, was Carole’s first Number One hit, when she was just 17? I had no idea that she entered the music industry as a teenager after meeting the legendary songwriter Gerry Goffin and went on to produce hits like the Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion,” and the Drifters’ “Some King of Wonderful”. Even better, each hit is sung by an impeccably talented cast, which brought the reality of her own legendary status even more to light with me.

The two songwriters had a loving but tumultuous personal and professional relationship. Perhaps they met too young (she got pregnant with their first child while still quite young), perhaps they were two artists navigating careers that catapulted too quickly, or perhaps it was her humble and modest sense of herself (hence the title of the show- it’s not until the show culminates at Carnegie Hall with King’s performance celebrating the release of her first solo album Tapestry that she truly accepts who she is).

Or, of course, it’s named after her hit called Beautiful where King sings:

When people are gonna treat you better, you’ll find, yes you will, you’re beautiful as you feel.

The show will make you sing – it may make you cry. It will easily make you dance in your seat, and like me, you’ll go home and download and listen to everything King ever wrote. Kudos to Chillina Kennedy, Scott L. Campbell, Anika Larsen, Jarrod Spector, Paul Anthony Stewart, Liz Larsen and the rest of the phenomenal cast of Beautiful.

Head to the show’s web site for ticket information.

Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary tickets to facilitate this review and others. As usual, all opinions are my own.

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