New Iceploration show at Busch Gardens mixes skating, animals and puppets
A brand new show started today at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Iceploration continues the theme park’s tradition of broadway style shows and ice shows in one. A cast of 20 brings to life a new adventure filled with world-class skaters, more than 75 original costumes, aerial performances, puppetry and live animals, with shows daily in the Moroccan Palace.
“The grand scale of this show sets a new standard of entertainment that further solidifies Busch Gardens as one of Florida’s premier theme parks,” said Busch Gardens Park President Jim Dean. “Iceploration reintroduces the ice show to our most loyal fans while bringing together the things Busch Gardens stage productions do best: world-class entertainment with top-notch skaters, amazing costumes, original music, larger-than-life puppets and even animal stars.”
Iceploration hopes to inspire audiences to “explore the world” on a journey to the four corners of the earth. This multi-sensory story, told through theatrical skating and an original score, is the collaboration of an award-winning creative team with Broadway credentials, including Tony Award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes (The Drowsy Chaperone, Best Costume Design Tony winner 2007; Legally Blonde the Musical, Best Costume Design Tony nominee 2007).
The 30-minute show opens with Austin, a digitally savvy preteen, who believes that technology has made his generation more connected to the world than ever before. But his grandfather – and old-world explorer – argues that the boy is more disconnected than he realizes, and takes him on an adventure around the globe. Through their travels, they visit the African Serengeti, Great Barrier Reef, the Arctic and the Amazon rainforest.
The adventure unfolds as they arrive in the African Serengeti. Here, larger-than-life puppets and spectacular set design bring elephants and other animals to life at a watering hole. Solo and chorus skating performances accompanied by acrobatics tell an anecdote of an agile cheetah stalking graceful gazelles and meerkats.
Austin and his grandpa then dive into the Great Barrier Reef. An amazing black light transition and never-before-seen helium-filled puppets immerse the audience in the wonders of the sea, filled with parrotfish and lionfish, sea urchins, turtles and a moray eel.
In the Arctic, Austin and grandpa witness even more beauty as they encounter the Aurora Borealis phenomenon, represented with theatrical lighting and projections. Then, they share the stage with amazing live animal stars, including a Siberian lynx and a sled of Siberian huskies as they continue to traverse the tundra.
Austin and Grandpa wrap up their adventure around the globe immersed in the lush, tropical Amazon Rainforest. Squirrel monkeys, sun conures and colorful macaws fill the air as playful frogs and a graceful dragonfly skate into the grand finale: a new signature song called “Meet the World.”
Iceploration is performed multiple times daily and performances are included with theme park admission.
For more on Iceploration, including interviews with the staff, watch episode 62 of Orlando Attractions Magazine – The Show.
