Remember Blue Man Group? The Seinfeld-era performance art/comedy show is still packing in the tourists down on Lafayette Street—and at theaters across the country, including Las Vegas. What started out as a weird pantomime stunt performed on the street outside '80s nightclubs clubs is now a multi-million dollar enterprise, recognizable in the mainstream and referenced on TV shows like Arrested Development. But founders Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton are never ones to coast, and today they introduced an updated version of their long-running show. It's got giant iPads—you know, for kids!
According to the creators, The Blue Man is the everyman, a curious character whose primary trait is a sense of wonder at the world around him. The show Tubes has been open since 1991 and has undergone multiple changes over the years; in this new iteration (video) the men explore themes of information overload and the disparity between computers and the "real" world. Giant "GiPads" resembling enormous iPhones drop from the ceiling and welcomed the Blue Men into a cyber world where books are condensed into Tweet-sized summaries and everything is digitized. The screens are used throughout the show as portals, guiding them through a computer world where they become animated men who yearn to experience life outside their 2D world.
The Blue Men do their best to get audiences participating; a section involving a breakdown of rock concert movements (the fist pump, "raising the roof," etc.) was particularly funny and engaging. The new multimedia pieces are well incorporated, and the juxtaposition of the men on stage with the digital avatars makes for compelling eye candy. Often the characters exist half in the digital world and half in person—a piquant visual metaphor for our "head buried in our Blackberry" society.
All the favorites from the original show are there, including the paint drums and the paper dance party finale (this time set to music and narration centering around every possible way to say the word "butt"). But the "tube" drumming and musical sections have been updated, moving from Ozzy's "Crazy Train" to "Fur Elise" to "Bad Romance" and culminating in everyone's lighter-waving anthem, "Free Bird."
And on April 13th the original Blue Men will take the stage in a benefit show for their Blue School. Joining them for a preshow concert, special guest Dave Matthews, who will also take part in the main show. The Blue School's mission is to "cultivate creative, joyful and compassionate inquirers who use courageous and innovative thinking to build a harmonious and sustainable world." All that toilet paper in the finale is recycled, you know.
