Blue Man Group
Orlando has so many things to do and one of my tasks is to bring you news of some of the things you may miss in amongst all the excitement. Blue Man Group is one of those things.
I was lucky enough to go along to watch a show earlier this week and I have to say it was an interesting evening. I’m not really sure how to describe it and it looks like the Blue Man Group isn’t either as the description on their website says “Blue Man Group is a creative organization dedicated to creating excitement-generating experiences for our audience and ourselves.” That’s all a bit corporate and non descript for me and doesn’t really say much about the experience you get when going. So what follows is my best effort on describing what is really an indescribable show.
The show starts in a darkened theater and immediately you begin to understand why the first three rows are given poncho’s… a clue: there’s water and paint involved as the Blue Man Group start beating their oil drums. They pull off an amazing mix of color and water splashing in the air and generally make a huge mess!
Of course most folks like to make a big mess, it’s human nature starting out when we were babies but this takes it to another level…a creative and entertaining one.
Naturally there are elements of silliness, the gross-out factor and permission given to the audience members to bop and scream out as most events annoyingly seem to do these days but fortunately this doesn’t spoil the show at all…in fact it all rather adds to it in this environment.
After the opening water and paint extravaganza the show moves onto the Blue Man pitch-fest. This is where one blue man throws gumball-sized paint balls at another and watches as the second one catches them in his mouth and then spits the paint at a canvas – thus, representing a child’s-eye view of art. Simultaneously you’ll see the Blue Man thrower chuck what look like marshmallows at the other guy, remember there are three Blue Men, who catches lord knows how many in his mouth and then spews them out to create a sticky mass of glop.
The Blue Men initially got their start making weird percussive noises with PVC tubes and this is where the show heads next before we get to watch the three of them gorge themselves on the contents of over-sized Captain Crunch boxes while listening to their chewing that seems to be amplified to rock-concert-like proportions.
Universal’s 1,000-seat Sharp Aquos Theatre allows the Blue Men to do lots with their multimedia-extravaganza of a show: TV-like video screens rise and fall, long tubes twirl from the ceiling, giant screens show you what’s going on when the blue guys run up to the back of the house so your always in the middle of the action.
Of course this means you can get too involved as you get to see inside some poor souls throat as a tiny video camera is fed inside the mouth of one of the victims in the audience. It’s a revolting sight… particularly if you’ve just enjoyed dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, situated next door and is the perfect venue for a meal before the show start time of 8pm.
Some of the segments aren’t quite that funny, and some, like a long sequence on animation, fall flat. They also take a guy from the audience, dress him in a white jumpsuit, cover him with paint and throw him at a canvas, but it loses it’s effect as it’s all done backstage.
The show finishes with a blizzard of toilet paper encasing the audience and at the same time strobe lights ensure a fascinating and amusing effect. The Blue Man Group show is a little pricey but overall it’s a fun show that will entertain you and your family. Don’t miss it when you are in Orlando!
