Dear Wayne,
I'm addressing this essay to you but I intend to share it with a number of my friends, including Mike and Jeff, because you gave me the perfect straight line for which this essay might be thought of as the punchline when you said:
Each time I am in LV I say I must see the Blue Man Group next time and never do. You can tell me what they are like. Are they just singers?
The short answer is that the ONLY thing they don't do is sing. (Short answer courtesy of Mike when I told him what you said.)
As you know I attended the event with Mike who gave me the two tickets. He had intended that I get a "date" to go with me, but I asked him to be my date instead and we had a great time seeing this group together. This morning I thanked him for thinking outside the box and giving me the holiday gift of an experience by saying "thank you for introducing me to a new Life space."
When I was visiting with Jeff over Christmas, he began showing me a DVD of The Blue Man Group and I made him stop after about 15 minutes so that he didn't "get my cherry" of having this first experience when Mike had given me the gift. As it turned out it was also Mike's first experience with them, so we both lost our Blue Man Group virginity at the same time with this same performance.
Mike and I agreed that we both enjoyed the experience more than we thought we would. Our seats were left center of the balcony, close enough to the middle that our view was unobstructed and, unlike the concert for Tommy Emmanuel in this same venue that we attended in October, hearing the performance was
not an issue. It was loud enough that the people across the street might have heard it! Free ear plugs were available at the theater.
My friend Steve who attends a lot of events at the Tennessee Theater says that the balcony seats are just about as good as you can get, because you are high enough up to see everything and the sound system treats those in that area nicely. I agree completely, based on last night's performance.
But "what are they like?"
The free brochure describes them in its "Broadway at the Tennessee" section like this, "We've got the unique theatrical performances of the Blue Man Group. The men bring you
a completely non-verbal show that is like nothing else you have ever seen." That's the end of their hype; mine continues below.
Audience involvement. That's one of the hallmarks of the evening and I suspect one of the initial objectives of the show. For instance, although THEY don't speak or sing during the performance, we, the audience, DO. We begin by getting sucked into reading the introduction to the performance
aloud from a digital scrolling marquee. Told to yell, we do.
Even in the dialog of the digital scroll, humor makes an early appearance. As a part of the announcement the digital scroll declares that there will be no intermissions and that the restrooms are available out the doors at the rear of the auditorium and then it suggests that that should be understood as an instruction to "go pee now." The use of the digital scroll is a clever theatrical ploy because it means they can simply type in something unique (who is in attendance, whose birthday it is, etc.) about each night's show just before the show starts, and it does its job to further sucker the audience into getting comfortable with participating.
The Blue Man Group is called a "group" rather than a trio because it isn't composed of just the three blue-faced primary performers that are stage center most of the time and typically associated with these performances. There is a total cast of about thirty, which includes some of the roadies, directors and bean counters who don't appear on stage. Between 15 and 20 of those people do perform however during the show, though they are usually veiled and not the primary focus of the scene in which they appear.
Like all field goal kickers, relief pitchers and drummers, these folks are a little quirky. This group is nothing if it is not rhythmic. The three primary performers all play "drums" except this drumming occurs on non-traditional drums such as a "set" of PVC pipes whose length can be varied, like the slide on a trombone, so as to produce a different pitch. Together the three men perform on this contrived device and make "music" like no other music I've heard -- unless maybe one thinks back to the jungle. Because of its almost tribal rhythmic quality it is not hard to fantasize oneself as dancing around a tribal fire, jumping up and down and swaying to the beat as if in preparation for an impending battle with another tribe. The beat evokes an almost involuntary visceral response and once again the audience is drawn into the performance.
Being committed not to speak, the three primary performers pantomime instead. Their interplay with each other, their pauses and stares at each other say volumes and frequently draw a laugh from the audience, now caught up as they are in being a part of the performance. And once the audience is comfortable with "playing along" with the performers, this three man team leaves the stage and goes down into the audience to draw unsuspecting, individuals into the act with them onstage. Two such audience members, unrehearsed, joined the act in different skits, after having been taken by the hand and led to the stage.
Whenever necessary to instruct the audience in what was expected of them, they returned again to the digital scroll to teach the seven basic rock concert moves. And on the digital scroll before finally arriving at the final basic instruction, "shake your booty," they ran through every possible synonym, from the ridiculous to the sublime, for that region of the anatomy at a "Laugh In" type pace that allowed no pauses for belly laughs.
The finale included six 8 or 10 feet in diameter helium-filled balloons that served temporarily as "musical instruments" for the group before they were bounced around through the audience to accompany the light show, music and indoor "fireworks" of a ticker tape parade. And to illustrate the universal nature of the appeal of this kind of show, the audience around us ran from grandparents like me to children as young as 6 or 7. Everyone had fun. It was like a circus.
The evening was a very successful performance for them and an enjoyable experience for us the audience. You asked how the cost of tickets compared to the Tommy Emmanuel performance. The price of the ticket was almost exactly twice the cost of that earlier concert and the auditorium, I learned this morning, seats 1600. I have no idea what their show might cost in Las Vegas but in my view the show last night was worth the price.
No flash photography was permitted and no audio or video recordings were allowed, but smart phone technology intervened. I haven't seen the quality yet of the pictures and video that Mike took with my iPhone, but at least it will let Connor know what his dad did last night with his own dad.
I recommend the next time you are in Las Vegas and have the idea you "should" go and see The Blue Man Group that you yield to that temptation. I can't believe you would regret it.
It's great to have experiences with your children and to appreciate just creating a memory together, whatever the activity, so I am very pleased with the unique gift Mike gave me, both because he had the idea and bought the tickets to allow me to attend and because he accompanied me to the performance and shared in the experience with me.
Perry
