Blue Man Group is a creative organization founded
by Phil Stanton, Chris Wink and Matt Goldman. The organization
produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring music, comedy and
multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television;
television appearances for shows such as
The Tonight Show,
Las Vegas,
Scrubs,
FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, and
Arrested
Development; and a children's museum exhibit ("Making
Waves"). All of the organization's appearances star a trio of
performers called Blue Men, who appear to have blue skin and no
hair or ears.
Blue Men
The organization's visual productions are centered on a trio of
anonymous mute performers, called Blue Men, who appear in black
clothing and Blue grease paint over latex bald caps and play a
mixture of idiosyncratic, often percussive, instruments. Blue Men
are performers of either gender who meet specific physical
requirements (athletic build, height between 5'10"-6'1"/1.78-1.85
m), specific performing talents (percussion, acting, non-verbal
communication), and certain personality traits (openness, charisma,
willingness to collaborate), among other qualifications.
Premise
The Blue Man Ensemble can be considered a type of
homologue, a creature approximating a real male human
being. The strongest and most obvious Blue Man characteristic is
his static appearance, namely, the ear-less, bright Blue head and
face, and nondescript,
utilitarian clothing. In action, the
Blue Man does not speak and his face is usually expressionless,
although suggestions of curiosity, surprise, wonder, chagrin, etc.
are sometimes visible. The Blue Man does not communicate through
speech or broad
body language or
gestures; rather, he communicates through intense eye contact and
simple gestures. He acts impulsively and primarily as a group of
three, "checking in" with the other two when making decisions and
before moving to their next action. The Blue Man's outwardly
apparent motivations are often presented in mild
caricature in order to make a humorous and/or
ironic point to the audience. Additionally, the Blue Man is
inscrutably motivated to drum. They even have their own hand
gesture, called the "Blue Man Salute", which is made by raising
both arms in the air. These characteristics provide a character
free of stereotypes or race and allow all members of the audience
to identify with them equally.
History
Beginnings
Astor Place Theatre with marquee for
the group
Meryl Vladimer, the Artistic Director
of The CLUB, saw their work as part of a variety show hosted
by the Alien Comic (Tom Murrin) and commissioned Blue Man Group to
create a full-length show. The resulting piece,
Tubes,
took off after Vladimer persuaded
New York Times theater
critic
Stephen Holden to review it.
Blue Man Group's popularity continued to snowball, resulting in a
performance at Lincoln Center titled "Serious Fun", and eventually
an Obie Award and a
Lucille Lortel
Award, which led producers to take the show to off-Broadway.
Tubes opened in 1991 at the Astor Place Theater in New
York City.
Blue Man Group won a special citation in the 1990-1991
Village
Voice Obie Awards, and a special
award in the 1992
Lucille Lortel
Awards, which are for excellence in off Broadway theatre.
Early in the history of the group, the members would speak with
audiences after the show while still in makeup, answering
questions, signing autographs, and talking about the show.
Eventually, however, it was decided that cast members would stay in
character at all times while in makeup, meaning after shows they
would still not speak to audience members, and the only "autograph"
they would sign would be a smudge of blue paint. When shown a "new"
piece of technology, such as a cell phone or even an old pair of
binoculars, they will simply stare at it in wonder.
Theatrical productions
Current theatrical productions
USA
Germany
- Berlin
at the
Bluemax Theater (February 1, 2006 — present)
Japan
- Tokyo, Japan
at the Invoice Theatre (December 1, 2007 —
present)
Previous theatrical productions
USA
- "Live
at Luxor" in Las
Vegas
at the Luxor
Hotel and
Casino (March 10, 2000 — September 15, 2005)
Germany
Canada
- Toronto
at the Panasonic Theatre (June 20, 2005 — January
7, 2007)
United
Kingdom
Netherlands
- Amsterdam
at the Theater Fabriek (December 2006 — September
30, 2007)
Switzerland
- Basel
, Switzerland at Musical Theater Basel (October 25, 2008 —
January 11, 2009)
Future productions
International Blue Man Theatrical Tour
Blue Man
Group is in the midst of an International Blue Man Theatrical Tour
which started in Stuttgart
, proceeded to Basel, Switzerland
, and will eventually go to Spain
, France
, and
Austria
for approximately four to six month runs in each
location. Unlike The Complex Rock Tour and the How to Be a
Megastar tours, the International Blue Man Theatrical Tour will
actually showcase the theatrical show currently performed in New
York City, Boston, and Chicago.
Beginning in November 12, 2009, Blue Man Group will welcome special
honorary guest performers including Lucas and Jackson Dell'Abate,
Benjy Bronk, John Hein, and Scott DePace. These performances will
run for one week at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. 5% of ticket
revenue will be donated to the North Shore Animal League, a
non-profit animal rescue based on Long Island, New York.
Music and tours
In 1999, the group released their first audio recording,
appropriately titled
Audio.
Although it contained some of the music from their stage
productions, it was less of a soundtrack and more a collection of
full-length instrumentals that featured new instruments.
In 2002, the group participated in
Moby's
Area2 tour, giving a more rock-oriented
performance than in the theatrical shows. Songs developed during
this tour appeared on 2003's album
The Complex.
Unlike
Audio,
The Complex featured a variety of
vocalists and guests including
Tracy
Bonham,
Dave Matthews,
Gavin Rossdale and
Venus
Hum. The record spawned its own 2003 tour, the first headlined
by Blue Man Group. The tour deconstructed the traditional
rock concert experience into its often clichéd
parts and was chronicled in a 2004
DVD release.
The tour featured Tracy Bonham and Venus Hum as supporting acts.
The DVD included a surround sound mix of some of the studio
recordings.
Blue Man Group launched its second tour, The "How to Be a Megastar
Tour 2.0", on
September 26,
2006. The tour added some new material to material from
the original Complex Rock Tour, and had Tracy Bonham as an opening
act and vocalist.
DJ/VJ Mike
Relm was the opening act for the second leg of this tour, which
ended April 22, 2007 in
Wilkes-Barre
, PA
.
This
third leg of the tour began in May 2007 and included performances
in Mexico
City
, Guadalajara
, and Monterrey
, Mexico
; Buenos Aires
, Argentina
; Sao
Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
; and
Santiago
, Chile
.
The
fourth leg, using "2.1" in its title, included more U.S. and
Canada
dates. Following that, the Megastar World Tour
visited France, Korea
, Canada, Germany, and a few other European countries throughout
2008.
The "How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0" visited Taipei, Taiwan from
August 19 to 23 as part of a promotional campaign for the 2009
Deaflympics in Taipei, most
of the show's dialogue displayed with subtitle. As
Typhoon Morakot hit the island and
caused serious damage in mid August, the group agreed to perform
one extra show with the proceeds being donated to the victims of
the flood.
Announced in 2009, Blue Man Group will be performing for the first
time at sea on Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, the Norwegian
EPIC. The EPIC begins alternating 7-Day Eastern and Western
Caribbean sailings round-trip Miami with Blue Man Group shows
nightly starting July 2010.
Themes
There are a number of different themes found in various Blue Man
performances. These themes include:
- Science and
technology, especially
the topics of plumbing, fractals, human sight, DNA, and the
Internet.
- Information
overload and information pollution, such
as when the audience is asked to choose one of three simultaneous
streams of information to read.
- Innocence, as when
the Blue Men appear to be surprised and perplexed by common
artifacts of modern society or by audience reactions.
- Self-conscious
and naïve
imitation of cultural norms, such as attempting to stage an elegant
dinner for an audience member with Twinkies;
or following the Rock Concert Instruction Manual (see below) with
the expectation that following a series of instructions is all it
takes to put on a rock concert.
- The Outsider. Blue Men always appear as a
group of three. This is because not only are Blue Men viewed as
outsiders to the rest of the world, but three is the smallest group
possible wherein there can be a subgroup of more than one as well
as a subgroup of one, the outsider. Many of the Blue Man skits
involve one of the three Blue Men performing in a manner
inconsistent with the other two.
- Rooftops, or otherwise climbing to the top.
There are a number of references, both in visual pieces and in
lyrics from the COMPLEX tour, that have a common theme of getting
to the roof. This theme is a metaphor for the advice Stanton, Wink,
and Goldman drew from Joseph
Campbell and Bill Moyers's PBS program The Power
of Myth and represents "Following your bliss."
The Rock Concert Instruction Manual
The
Rock Concert Instruction Manual, used by Blue
Man Group in The Complex Rock Tour and the How to Be a MegaStar
Tours 2.0 and 2.1, is a
satire of the
conventions of
rock music. The manual
describes in simple steps how one can gain
fame and fortune by becoming a
rock star. Parts of the manual are also used in
Blue Man Group's theatrical shows.
Origins and attributes
The Rock Concert
Instruction Manual is bought at the beginning of the How to Be
a MegaStar show from a fake
infomercial,
using an audience member's
credit card.
(In compensation, the audience member later receives a
marshmallow sculpture
that was in one Blue Man's mouth). The Manual is narrated by a
monotone male's voice
(
Todd Perlmutter) who directs their
actions step-by-step, from creating their
persona to ending the show.
Appearances and other work
Advertising
- When Blue Man Group was still solely in New York, they ran a
variety of fake advertisements in The Village Voice.
- The group did a commercial for the soft drink Mirinda, where the trio is orange, instead of
blue.
- The
group achieved widespread visibility when they appeared in an
Intel
advertising campaign for Pentium III and Pentium
4 CPU as well as
Centrino technology.
- In June 2006, Swatch launched a new range
of colored watches with BMG as the faces of the advertising
campaign. A limited edition Blue Man Group watch was also released,
featuring all three men throwing paint to each other on the
strap.
- BMG appeared in local TV ads for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team
broadcasts.
- In 2005, the group collaborated with artist David LaChapelle and produced several new
images for upcoming ad campaigns, including their show "bluephoria"
at The Venetian in Las Vegas. These images are radically different
from any of the group's previous advertising and can be seen on the
official
webpage.
- The group is featured in a major advertising campaign in Brazil
for Telecom Italia
Mobile.
TV guest appearances
- Since 2004, Blue Man Group has appeared repeatedly on
The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno (imdb.com 1997/11/13, 2003/08/08, 2003/09/22,
2005/10/06 and 2007/10/09) and Live with Regis and
Kelly.
- Blue Man Group frequently gave out clues on the PBS kids' game
show Where in the
World is Carmen Sandiego? in the early 1990s.
- Starting in the second season of Arrested Development,
a running subplot was that of Tobias
Fünke (David Cross) attempting to
join the group with little to no luck. The group themselves were
featured at least three times.
- Blue Man Group appears in The Drew Carey Show episode "Drew
Live III" in 2001.
- Blue Man Group appears in the music video for "Everyday" by Dave Matthews Band, hugging the main
character of the video and leaving blue handprints on his
back.
- In 2004, Blue Man Group made an appearance in the show
Las Vegas in the
episode "Blood and Sand" (original airdate January 5, 2004). In the
episode, they play themselves "trashing" the hotel managed by Ed
Deline (James Caan), and shooting money
from PVC pipes in the lobby.
- In
Autumn 2005, the group appeared on the children's BBC program, Blue Peter
, to promote their London
production.
- Blue Man Group appeared on the finale of America's Got Talent, where they
performed a cover of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" with Tracy Bonham, from their Complex Rock Tour
show.
- Blue Man Group made an appearance at the launch party of the
new CW network in
September 2006.
- Blue Man Group and their Las Vegas show were featured in the
sixth (2006) season premiere episode of Scrubs on NBC
titled "My Mirror Image".
- Blue Man Group appeared in an episode of FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, a
children's game show on PBS Kids Go. The
episode was "Ruff's Case of Blues in the Brain".
- Emily Yeung took part in a brief performance with Blue Man
Group on the children's program This is Emily Yeung.
- In November 2007, Blue Man Group appeared in an episode of
Space Pirates, a children's BBC program.
- In April 2008, Blue Man Group appeared in the Comedy Central special Night of Too Many
Stars. Actor Kevin James
joined the trio as a parody, bringing out Jerry Stiller, his former co-star on
The King of Queens.
- On October 2, 2008, Blue Man Group performed on an episode of
Dr. Phil that
discussed various ways to help reduce stress.
- In April 2009, Blue Man Group appeared in an episode of
long-running soap opera Guiding
Light set in Orlando.
- In October 2009, Blue Man Group appeared on Discovery Channel's
Time Warp.
Concert guest appearances
- At the Grammy Awards in 2001, Moby collaborated with Blue Man
Group and Jill Scott to perform his song "Natural Blues."
- In
December 2005, Blue Man Group appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in
Cardiff
, where they performed "I
Feel Love" with Katherine
Jenkins on vocals. They also created a piece of Yves Klein-inspired art by daubing comedian
Joe Pasquale in paint, attaching him to
a pulley, and swinging him against a large canvas. Finally, Blue
Man Group performed their popular "spin art/marshmallows"
skit.
- Blue Man Group performed the American and Canadian national
anthems at the home opener of the Toronto Blue Jays against the Minnesota Twins in April 2006.
- Blue Man Group had a guest performance at Tiësto's "Elements
of Life" show where they performed "No More Heroes" on June 2,
2007 in the Gelredome in Arnhem, Holland. They also joined him
at the Hammerstein
Ballroom
in New York City to kick off the United States leg
of his "Elements of Life" tour on July 19 and July 20, 2007, where
they performed the same song. The song was released on
Tiësto's 2008 release, Elements of Life:
Remixed.
- On
July 4, 2007, Blue Man
Group performed "PVC IV" with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart conducting, during the Pops'
annual Fourth of July celebration at
the Hatch
Shell
.
- On November 8, 2007, Ricky Martin opened
the Las Vegas-themed 2007 Latin
Grammy Awards show with the help of Blue Man Group. They
performed a medley of Ricky Martin's "Lola, Lola" and "La
Bamba".
- On December 1, 2007, Blue Man Group and Kumi
Koda performed "I Feel Love" for her Black Cherry Tour in the
Tokyo Dome, Japan.
- On
July 4, 2008, Blue Man Group performed at the Stadium of Fire event
at the LaVell
Edwards Stadium
in Provo,
Utah
.
- On
January 2, 2009 Blue Man Group made a guest appearance at the "I've
in BUDOKAN 2009 - Departed to the Future" concert at Tokyo's
Budokan
, performing "Hydian Way" with Love Planet
Five.
Movies
Other
- Blue
Man Group appears in an informational video played continuously at
security checkpoints in McCarran International
Airport
in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- In 2004, the piece "Piano Smasher" was used in the soundtrack
for the video game R-Type
Final.
- Blue Man Group have licensed two different musical instruments
for kids, manufactured by Toy Quest, based on existing Blue Man
creations: "Blue Man Group Percussion Tubes" and "Blue Man Group
Keyboard Experience".
- In 2007, Goldman and Wink (both fathers) founded an alternative
children's school, The Blue
Man Creativity Center.
- Blue Man Group is mentioned in the Angel episode "The House Always Wins," when Fred
inquires if they are demons. Angel replies that "only two of them"
are.
- In an episode of Tim and Eric Awesome Show,
Great Job!, Jeff Goldblum
parodies Blue Man Group with a similar group titled the "Jeff
GoldBluMan Group".
- Blue Man Group was parodied on an episode of Family Guy. In a cut-scene, Peter recalls the time when he saw the Jew Man
Group, a group of four Rabbis in blue paint
(three rabbis were dancing to Klezmer music
while holding up a chair with the fourth sitting on it).
- Blue Man Group was also parodied on the The Simpsons, where Bart threw a ball into
one's members mouth in a church. Also they appear in a couch gag in episode "The Old Man and the Key". In the
12th season episode Trilogy of
Error Homer describes the Blue Man Group as "a total rip off of
The Smurfs". Also, in "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner",
Homer - on the verge of being arrested - desperately babbles "Don't
tell my kids I'm going to jail. Tell them I joined the Blue Man
Group. I'm the fat one!"
- In 2008, Blue Man Group performed a special concert, organized
by ABC's Oprah's Big Give,
for a Chicago inner city school. Also at the show, they gave two
$50,000 checks to help the school's athletic facilities and music
department.
- In 2008, Blue Man Group performed at the 2008 FIRST Robotics
Boston Regional Competition.
- On October 3, 2009 the Blue Man Group performed during the New
York Rangers home opening ceremony at Madison Square Garden,
sporting New York Rangers paraphenalia.
Feature film
In September 2008,
Variety reported that the original
trio (Matt Goldman, Chris Wink and Phil Stanton) would star in a
Blue Man Group
IMAX 3D feature film, to
be produced by
Charlotte Huggins.
The film, titled
Blue Man Group: Mind Blast, will be
directed by
David Russo, and will be
released by
National
Geographic Entertainment.
Labor controversies
None of the people who work for Blue Man Group are members of a
union. There have been labor actions in Toronto and Las Vegas. In
March 2007 the AFL-CIO placed Blue Man Group on its "Don't Buy
List" for union members and their families.
Toronto
Announcing their debut in Toronto,
Ontario
in 2005, Blue Man Group attracted considerable
opposition for opting not to use unionized workers for their show, which many
labor groups regarded as being highly unusual for a show of its
size in Canada. Their
June 20,
2005 premiere in Toronto was
picketed by members of the
Canadian Actors' Equity
Association, the
Toronto Musicians'
Association, and two locals of the
International
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The Ontario Teacher's
Union also joined in the boycott, which essentially eliminated any
business from school trips and student matinees. The show closed
after 18 months, staging its final show on January 7, 2007. The
Toronto Star reported that the closing was due primarily
to the show's union difficulties and to the lack of novelty of the
show itself.
Las Vegas
In
September 2005, Blue Man Group moved from Luxor, where they
had a union contract, to The Venetian
, electing not to keep the contract.
Stagehands who went from the Luxor venue to the Venetian started an
organizing campaign with the
International
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes in Las Vegas, leading to
a vote in May 2006. Before the vote, Matt Goldman, a co-founder of
Blue Man Group, pledged to honor the results "in accordance with
the great democratic traditions of our country."
In the May 2006 election, the stagehands voted to be represented by
IATSE Local 720. In June the
National Labor Relations
Board certified the results. The winning election permitted the
employees to start bargaining a contract with Blue Man Productions.
After the election, Blue Man Group refused to go to negotiate,
arguing that the election was not valid because it did not include
a half-dozen musical technicians.
In June, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the
regional office of the
National Labor Relations
Board. The NLRB sided with the union. The company filed a
challenge, sending the case to full hearings before the Board in
Washington DC. In September 2006 the NLRB rejected the challenge,
ordering bargaining to begin.
In September 2006, Blue Man Group sued to have the NLRB ruling
overturned. In October, the NLRB filed a petition for enforcement
of its order. (D.C. Cir. Nos. 06-1328 & 06-1341 NLRB v. Blue
Man Vegas, LLC Board Case Nos. 28-CA-20868 and 28-RC-6440).
On June 10, 2008, the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit ruled in favor of the NLRB.
The union has also filed charges of federal unfair labor practices
with the NLRB Las Vegas office, contending that Blue Man Group
illegally changed the show's work rules and fired a key union
supporter.
Discography
Videography
- Inside the Tube (2006). A special one-hour documentary
created and aired exclusively for PBS. Features
interviews with Stanton, Wink, and Goldman describing the Blue Men,
and video clips from various theatrical performances. DVD only on
the PBS online store.
- How To Be A Megastar Live! (2008). Live concert
footage from Blue Man Group's newest tour. It was released on DVD
on April 1st and Blu-Ray on November 4,
2008. The DVD version includes a bonus audio CD
of many of the show's songs.
- Scoring Reel a scoring DVD
only available in 2004.
Awards and nominations
See also
- Uberschall, a Las Vegas band
consisting of past and present members of Blue Man Group
References
Specific references:
- Blue Man Requirements
- Lola Ogunnaike, "For the Blue Man Army, Recruitment Is on the Rise",
New York Times, October 10, 2005
- Vicki Goldberg, "High Tech Meets Goo With Blue Man Group",
New York Times, November 17, 1991
- Village Voice 1990-1991 Obie awards. Retrieved
December 23, 2007.
- Lucille Lortel Awards - Previous Nominees and
Recipients. Retrieved December 23, 2007.
- Viki Goldberg, "Blue Man Joins the Vegas Collection, New
York Times, April 30, 2000
- BLUE MAN GROUP / Show in Berlin - English
- PBS's INSIDE THE TUBES Blue Man special from 2006
- http://www.blueman.com/pdf/press/BMG_readytorock.pdf
- [1]
- http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/8137/
- "I’VE
in BUDOKAN 2009" Jan 02 2009
- [2]
- IGN.com
- "AFL-CIO Adds Blue Man Productions to Don’t Buy
List", March 19, 2007. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
- Richard Ouzounian, "Who killed Blue Man Group? Matinees failed to draw
school tours Show may have been past its prime" (pdf),
Toronto Star, September 29, 2006
- Michael J. Mishak, "Culinary finds own path to growth: Forced to use
elections, other unions fall short of organizing success",
Las Vegas Sun, December 1, 2007
- Michael J. Mishak "Ignoring law, Blue Man Group drags out union
fight", Las Vegas Sun, October 9, 2007
- U.S. Court of Appeals - D.C. Circuit -
Home
-
http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/200806/06-1328-1120845.pdf
General references:
External links
at the
Astor Place
Theatre
(1991 — present)
at the Charles Playhouse
(1995 — present)
at the
Briar Street Theater (1997 —
present)
at the
Sharp Aquos
Theatre
at Universal Orlando Resort
(June 6, 2007 — present)
(May 9, 2004 — January 31, 2006)
at the Metronom Theatre (March 11, 2007 — October
3, 2008)
at the
New London
Theatre
(November 2005 — June 24, 2007)
, Switzerland
, Texas
.
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