Blue Man Group stages a colorful show
Nov 21, 2012 (Menafn - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Comedy and mime and a little bit of magic. Light show and rock concert. Just three actors, plus a few musicians, stage hands, some participants hauled up from the audience . . .the Blue Man Group takes the stage on its own inventive terms.
The result? It feels like a collaboration between Marcel Duchamp and Dennis the Menace -- half droll Dadaist wit, half giggly little troublemaker.
That turns out to be an appealing combination.
At the Fox Theatre for the first time, the Blue Men performed a fast-paced show that seemed mainly to have to do with making connections -- human connections -- in a technologically sophisticated world. They rib that world a little, in everything from an explanation of plumbing systems to the computerized readouts that lead off requests for audience participation with a vivid command: "Ready Go."
But they never come right out and say that. They don't say anything. Wordless characters whose shiny blue heads are created with bald caps and greasepaint, the Blue Men entertain with vignettes, projections, the on-stage creation of "art work" and lots of music (mostly percussion, always very loud).
A dinner party with Twinkies took on a touching resonance in light of the news about Hostess -- and the woman who was their "dinner guest" Tuesday night was a really good sport. A game of catch played with marshmallows seemed impossible, and maybe risky. (Do not try this at home!)
A sequence about texting that involved two figures that looked like digitalized Keith Haring men was absolutely brilliant, not only in its saturated colors but in its reflection on the joys of three-dimensional life.
That's what's so terrific about the Blue Man Group. It's great for adults (who might want to consider their themes) and for kids (who can understand each routine, including the fourth-grade body humor that slips in now and then).
By the end -- which arrives all too soon, after about an hour and half without intermission -- the Blue Men prove they mean everything they implied about making connections. Tossing huge, beautiful balls into the audience, along with lots of crepe paper, they involve the audience to play a big game of keep-away.
Which is, of course, is the last thing you want to do with this show. It's worth sitting close, too -- and if you're very close, you will find a plastic poncho on your seat. You may need it.
The Blue Men Group's creators, writers and directors are Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chis Wink. It is impossible to guess who's onstage at any given performance, but the program lists four Blue Men and two swings for the Fox show: Shane Andries, James Marlowe, Russell Rinker, Chris Smith, Kalen Allmandinger and Patrick Newton.
BLUE MAN GROUP
When: Through Dec. 2; no performance on Thanksgiving
Where: Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard
How much: 15-75
More info: 314-534-1111; metrotix.com
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