For the past year Blue Men have been spotted walking the streets of London. They move silently, are completely mute, and would be unsettling if they weren’t so damn cool. Whether these visions are hallucinations or not is a matter of opinion. For instance the Artshub.co.uk editor is convinced she spotted one at a pub down Gloucester Road on New Year’s Eve.
“I can’t vouch for the sobriety of your editor,” said a spokesman for Blue Man Group, the company behind the zany West End hit show believed to be behind the apparitions, “but it is true there are a lot of people who are really into the show, so it’s possible one of them decided to go the whole hog and get Blued up for New Year.”
Unfortunately I can’t vouch for the ed’s sobriety either (can anyone?), but it’s not hard to spot the appeal of Blue Man Group, currently appearing at Drury Lane’s New London Theatre in Covent Garden.
The show, which opened in November 2005, is a colourful, action-packed performance starring three mute men wearing bright blue PVC masks, reminiscent of the one Jim Carrey wore in The Mask. The trio somehow incorporate reels of bog roll, some of the weirdest instruments ever played, humorous sketches reflecting the nature of modern life, amazing percussion, and paint, paint, and more paint, to produce one of the most talked about experiences to wow Londoners since Gunter von Hagens’ Bodyworlds exhibition, but without the creepiness.
“The aim with these characters is to take away all ego from the actors and turn them into a kind of human canvas,” said the spokesman,”I believe the colour blue was chosen because it’s neutral. You know, red is sort of Satanic, green makes you think of little green men from Mars, and yellow would probably make them look a bit unhealthy.”
Originally slated to end in March, Blue Man Group was recently granted an extension to stay at the New London Theatre until the end of the year. It’s West End popularity is yet another notch in the belt for the company that was started in New York in 1991 by friends Chris Wink, Phil Stanton and Matt Goldman, and has now been seen by audiences throughout America and Europe.
One of the great things about Blue Man Group is that the production team, based in New York, is always coming up with innovative ways to enthrall the audience. “The shows evolve through time,” said the spokesman, “We have a really large creative team and basically if they come up with something, either musically or in terms of performance, and it works and they like it enough then it gets incorporated.”
The London show is proving especially appealing to kids, who can usually be found clamouring to meet the Blue Men in the lobby after the show. However, those with a slightly more cynical edge have criticised Blue Man Group for pandering to the masses. BBC critic Mark Shendon remarked in his review, “…what was once an edgy critique of contemporary art and society, as seen through the baffled, innocent eyes of a trio of mute (and mutating) alien figures, is now a piece of consumerist culture itself.”
Blue Man Group has also been criticised at an organisational level for hiring non-unionised acting talent during an 18 month run in Toronto, Canada. A boycott, organised by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, not only damaged the company’s reputation worldwide but resulted in sufficiently poor ticket sales that saw the show end prematurely in January this year.
Blue Man Group’s London spokesman said he was unable to comment on events taking place in Canada but insisted the UK cast and crew were happy with existing arrangements. “Certainly if you talk to any of the actors you’ll find it’s a very close knit community and everyone is very content,” he said.
The negative publicity generated in Toronto has not affected the show’s popularity elsewhere. Blue Man Group recently sold it’s 10 millionth ticket worldwide and according to the spokesman plans for world domination are well under way. “There are currently 60 Blue Men around the world working on 8 productions with a new one scheduled to start in Orlando this July,” he said.
As well as the shows Blue Man Group is committed to making music. In addition to releasing two albums, and collaborating with John Powell on the soundtrack to the movie Robots, Blue Man Group has been nominated for, and presented at the Emmys.
The future for Blue Man Group looks anything but blue.
