Created by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink in 1988,
this sometimes outrageous, inventive show has developed into a
grand franchise with excellent PR and promotion throughout the
world in smaller venues, television and concert type offerings.
Created by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink in 1988, this sometimes outrageous, inventive show has developed into a grand franchise with excellent PR and promotion throughout the world in smaller venues, television and concert type offerings.
Venturing into a larger theater for the first time at the Golden Gate seems like a leap of faith to audiences that either embrace the production or gently look upon it with an incredulous shake of their vibrating head and body.
The original creators do not perform – instead, seven blue men alternate in the three main roles with bald blue-painted heads that give off a childish, alien innocence. Their antics are backed up with some interesting special effects and very loud original music – almost hard rock metal – that has the whole theatre vibrating for most of the performance.
Some will call it creative. Others nonsensical, clever or dumb, artsy or gobbley-gook, avant-garde or downright disgusting. Whichever way you choose, the premise stands: everyone has an opinion of what they consider entertainment. The majority of the opening night audience was enjoying the antics and following instructions of an offstage voice instructing it to read a crawl sign, to hoot and holler, to wave arms, to stand and shake its rear on cue. It all seemed a bit much for this observer. But as I said, everyone has an opinion, and if the emperor’s new clothes look good to your neighbor, perhaps I’m missing something.
The most interesting part of this production is the instruments, handled by six musicians as well as the blue men. They sound like something out of Dr. Seuss. (Not all mentioned here are used in this particular production.)
The strings include an electric zither and hammered dulcimer that are the most familiar to the average person. Then there is a cimbalom, a larger type dulcimer from Hungry, a Chapman stick, and sometimes they throw in “The Piano Smasher.” This is a grand piano with its top removed, stood on its side and played by hitting the open strings with a large mallet.
The percussion instruments include the paint drums that splash neon colored paint into the air against a canvas, sword airpoles, angel airpoles and wiper airpoles that create melodies.
There are also pipes and tubes that give off tunes. The PVC pipes are struck with foam rubber paddles, and the tubulum is struck with drum sticks. The backpack tubulum and the drumbone are a percussive spin-off of a trombone. It is a sliding tube within a tube that creates a variety of pitches.
When Shakespeare named one of his plays “Much Ado About Nothing”, he never dreamed of anything like this production because if he had, he just might have saved that title for the “Blue Man Group”.
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‘Blue Man Group’
Where: Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St. at Market Street, San Francisco
Through: June 19
Tickets: $30-$99
Details: Call (888) 746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com
