“Blue Man Group” has freshened up its presentation with a few bits, but the show remains 1 hour and 45 minutes of sensory overload.
The Chicago production is now in its seventh year at the Brian Street theatre. It typically offers 10 performances a week and there is no indication it’s slowing down in audience appeal. Still, the management sees no harm in injecting new material to entice previous spectators to return for another look.
The new material comes in the second half of the intermissionless production. The show still opens with electronic messages scrolling above the stage to get the crowd revved up for what’s to come. The first half retains the marshmallow throwing exhibition, the display of comic poster texts, and the Cap’n Crunch eating fest. The three deadpan performers in blue cobalt makeup continue to bring a young lady up to the stage to share a Twinkies snack.
The new stuff includes a bit on choreography for spectators at a rock concert, a cartoon sequence at an Internet coffee shop, and a quick history of animation. The replacement material is neither better nor worse than the sequences it replaces, but the spirit is the same.
What is constant throughout the evening is the ear-piercing rock music accompaniment, the audience involvement, the use of hand-held video cameras, and the oddball percussion numbers. The glue of the show remains the skill of the three blue men, especially at holding the audience’s attention with just a blank stare of a gesture.
The audience is very much a part of the show. Rarely have I seen spectators so primed to have a good time. They hooted and cheered and clapped and laughed at virtually anything the blue men did on stage or among the patrons. The blasting music and psychedelic visual effects had the audience wired from the moment the evening started.
The current show is suited to any age group, from adolescents to senior citizens. At my performance, the theater was filled with busloads of teenagers who obviously were pre-sold that they were going to have the time of their life. It must be heaven for performers to play before audiences ready to gleefully accept everything the production will throw at them.
“Blue Man Group” is basically a visceral experience, but it does have a few thoughts in its head. It continues to mock modern art, especially the spontaneous paintings of the Abstract Expressionists and the gross-out dead animal “art” represented by the current generation of young British artists. It’s questionable whether the average spectator will acquire an altered perspective on the sham aesthetics of much contemporary art. Still, the satire is there for those who can connect with it.
The three blue men and the three fluorescent-painted rock musicians are drawn from a pool of performers and aren’t credited individually in the playbill. They are interchangeable in appearance and in talent. The men at my show were all first rate, as they have been at my three precious exposures to the show.
The Chicago production of “Blue Man Group” is nicely located in a hot-button entertainment zone on the North Side. The show offers a style of entertainment that can’t be found anywhere else in the Midwest. There are only three other American venues for “Blue Man Group”-New York City, Boston, and Las Vegas (a Berlin, Germany, edition is scheduled to open in May).
For people looking for the off-the-wall fun and novelty, the blue men own a large part of the market. That makes it an ideal show for tourists and for locals looking for a sure-fire evening to entertain guests. I found this show a little less exciting than earlier viewings, but only because of my familiarity from previous visits. Yet that didn’t lessen my respect for its creativity and professionalism.
Review of ‘Blue Man Group’ at the Briar Street Thea
