Tiny Bubbles.(The Talk of the Town)(Fan Yang's "Gazillion Bubble Show")

Criminal acts on Broadway are usually confined to the stage (see "Chicago" or "West Side Story") or the box office (ticket purchasers can feel like victims of highway robbery). What recently befell Fan Yang, the creator of "Gazillion Bubble Show," an Off Off Broadway production, may signal an unsettling new frontier.

Several months ago, when Yang, who calls himself "the world's greatest bubble artist," was in Tokyo preparing a new version of his production, he got a call from a member of his staff in New York, where his show had been running for two years, at the New World Stages Theatre. Someone had broken into the storage unit in North Bergen, New Jersey, where Yang kept his supplies; three tons of his secret bubble solution and six thousand special bubble toys had been stolen. After doing some quick calculations, Yang realized that he had enough bubbles left for only six weeks' worth of shows. "My first words were 'Guys, this is serious stuff,' " he recalled the other day.

"Gazillion Bubble Show" was an improbable hit when it opened for an intended nine-day run, in 2006. It involves Yang, his wife, Ana, or his brother, Jano, blowing bubbles, some the size of beach balls, some filled with smoke, others with baby bubbles tucked inside. Lasers are involved. Near the end, there is a bubble blizzard. Yang, a native of Vietnam who perfected his craft while living on the streets of Europe, has set ten Guinness World Records. Last year, he encased an elephant in a bubble. For twenty dollars, audience members can have their pictures taken inside a bubble, with the caption "Me in a Bubble."

Flying back to New York, Yang focussed on two goals: keep the show running and solve the crime. The bubble solution is concocted from six types of concentrate that Yang designs and manufactures ("to create varying viscosities and densities," he said). To produce more, he would have to travel to Hong Kong, where he has a processing plant, buy the ingredients, mix them into the dozen solutions used in the show, submit them to an international safety inspection, ship them to Los ...