Blue Man Group

Sunday, December 16^th saw us at the Blue Man Group show in Chicago. It’s amazing how they have combined music, color, theatre and electronic multimedia to create a unique entertainment show. The show began with a rather long interaction with the audience through electronic message boards, where people were asked read out the displayed lines congratulating some people for their recent feats or suggesting someone how to kill his headache. It felt a bit stupid to me but the enthusiasm, with which a large part of the audience reacted, may be it was a good stunt to gear up the viewers. Through out the show, the music was awesome. The common act of beating the drums was elevated to a superior level with different colors and strategically placed lights.

The mime was good. The visual presentations through different forms served well as breaks between the main acts. Audience interaction was a very important part of the entire show. They often came out to the general sitting area, connected to the people and selected individuals to be parts of their acts. An old lady was invited to their dinner table while a young man was used to make an ultra-modern art, which involved painting him blue and smashing him against a canvas. The lady must have enjoyed it. I hope the guy enjoyed it too. The most hilarious part of audience interaction for me was when someone entered the show late. The on-going show was halted; electronic sign boards declared that someone came late; one of the blue-men focused a light on the late comers; cameras tracked them and there was a background song saying “You are late … you are late” in an opera style. You should have seen the expression of the late comers. At a later stage, rolls of white ribbons were put on the audience along with a great show of lights. The moves of rock n roll were fun and exciting too. However, the best part for me was playing the pipes. Below is a video from the youtube. It’s from a different show, but it’s similar.

Overall, the evening was a delight. Even more as we got tickets for $30 instead of the normal rate of $60 being students. So don’t forget to take your student ID if you are one.

(The pics in the post are courtesy http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/blue-man-group-puts-on-incredible-show-in-las-vegas/ You are not allowed to take pictures or videos inside the hall)