Painting the Town Blue
This article was published in Triangle Review on 25 October 2022.
Since seeing a video of the Blue Man Group performing "I Feel Love," with Annette Strean and Venus Hum in 2004, I have wanted to see them live; and last night was my lucky night. Not only that, I got to see them in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts with my 12-year-old, whose college-aged siblings were actually jealous.
Waiting for the show to begin, we inspected what looked like the insides of a giant computer that spanned the stage. On the left were rows of ~1-foot-long rectangular panels, independently illuminating like fleeting data in a digital world.
"They’re all voice-recording tools," my son said, pointing to a screen that displayed white waves of sound frequencies. On another screen, horizontal columns of what looked like a bar graph illuminated in various configurations, perhaps representing amplitude. Three screens in another area displayed rows of white digits scrolling upward. Somewhere in the middle was a game of pong, long rectangles batting a smaller square across the screen. The set was amazing.
The show began with the sound of a gong, hit by a man dressed in black, whose hands, face and bald head were blue. After waiting for audience applause, two other Blue Men joined him and began to play two drums at center stage. Yellow paint splattered from the drum on the right as the audience began to clap in time. A Blue Man poured more paint into the drum, then more … droplets of paint fluorescing in the light as they propelled from the drum’s surface into the air and the audience in front, who were provided plastic jackets for this reason.
The show progressed with entertaining alien skits reminiscent of Boohbah or the Teletubbies, to the delight of audience members, many of whom were under the age of five. (It’s noteworthy that Boohbah and the Teletubbies aired in 2003 and 1997, after the creation of Blue Man Group.)
Many of the skits involved paint; and it was super fun to watch the Blue Men create paintings in such unusual, musical ways. Their spiral-infused masterpiece made me want to search my basement for my kids’ old Spin Art set when I got home.
The Blue Men went into the audience and easily enticed people to participate in their inquiring antics, connecting with everyone as a result. At one point, they carried a video camera and microphone and produced a beat that incorporated audience members’ voices and sounds, projecting real-time video of the process across multiple screens onstage.
In-between (and sometimes during) these scenes, the Blue Men inspected and played percussive instruments made out of all kinds of whacky materials. My favorite was large plastic plumbing pipes that they connected in a plethora of amusing configurations, changing the pitch by changing the length(s) of the pipes. Two background drummers joined in, and the entire room vibrated as this strange band of musicians rocked the house.
The audience was part of the visual display at the conclusion, producing a whirlwind of confetti and streamers that fluoresced like the men and stage in front of them. The show ended in signature style, with all three Blue Men playing the drums, each ejecting red, yellow, or blue paint such that the flying droplets combined in mesmerizing colors.
After this finale, I was pleased that the entire stage crew came onstage for a group bow. This production was not just a musical and acting feat, it was a tour de force for the set, lighting and sound designers and staff involved. After a standing ovation, the room went dark and several people left before a drum beat encouraged the audience to clap for an encore, which may have been the best musical piece of the night.
Blue Man Group was created by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton in 1987 and was purchased in 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil, with the intent of expanding. It is now operated by the global entertainment company Blue Man Productions. A typical production employs seven to nine full-time Blue Men, who are selected by audition.
Though I would have preferred to see the original Blue Man Group, rather than a corporate entity of anonymous Blue-Man actors (I can’t find the names of any of the talented people involved in last night’s performance), this show is uniquely entertaining, with incredibly talented musical performances on instruments never seen before. Plus, you can bring even young children. Just don’t forget earplugs. The last 2022 Raleigh performance of Blue Man Group starts at 7:30 p.m. tonight!
[Note to Producers: Given its suitability for young children and the number of young children in the audience, it would be better to start this production an hour or so earlier to increase attendance.]
