Tony winner and ‘Museum of Ice Cream’ producer to open ‘Candy Cottage’ in NYC.
Just in time for an après-Halloween confectionary reboot, the Candy Cottage of Christmas Magic will open in Rockefeller Center not long after the kids’ trick-or-treat bags empty out.
Located in the Channel Gardens, visitors will be showered with sweets inside a “cottage” created within a giant trunk of a Christmas tree.
Once inside, Cottage Keepers will encourage kids of all ages to pluck as many sugary bites as they desire from the seams of the woodwork before sending them off on a scavenger hunt through Rockefeller Center’s Christmas wonderland.
The experience will open Nov. 5th and run through Jan. 2 — and with tickets ranging from $25 to $45 depending on the date and time, which are available now online .
“We want you to tell us your own version of Christmas,” said Arielle Tepper, a co-founder of We Are Smile Studio, which is producing the event. “You might want a little holly jolly, or a snowflake on your nose.”
After getting their fill of candy canes and other delights, a personalized mapped itinerary will guide the merry foragers to unearth the ingredients that will fulfill their own Christmas magic.
Upon their return to the Candy Cottage, guests will experience a fairytale ending created with theatrical magic. “After the illusion they will have an opportunity to take photos and post on social media,” Tepper added, of an Instagrammable cotton candy cloud.
The immersive experience is the first collaboration between Tepper, a six-time Tony-winning Broadway producer, and Vance Garrett, a producer of the “Museum of Ice Cream” and the “Elf on the Shelf” drive-through experience that ran in Los Angeles during the pandemic.
“Both of us wanted to get back into creating stuff and we have a childlike spirit when we get together,” Garrett explained of the new partnership.
“We really want to create experiences that are transformational,” said Garrett.
Alissa Bersin, Managing Director of Retail Leasing for Rock Center’s ownership, Tishman Speyer, aided the duo in the establishment of the 600-square-foot Candy Cottage and its upcoming larger iteration.
To keep the enchantment alive along with theatrical craft, masterful storytelling and an elevated pop sensibility, We Are Smile Studio expects to open a new immersive adventure next spring in a larger and permanent Rock Center storefront.
