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On Stage: Blue Man Group Is an Experience

If the unpredictable spring weather has given you the blues, one solution is to go even bluer. An evening of entertainment by those cobalt-blue-bald-headed guys—yes, the Blue Man Group—can only be described as an experience.

A few details about Blue Man Group of which you might not be aware—it was founded in the 1980s by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink. Since that time, the group has helped start a charter school in New York City, known as The Blue School; premiered a live-action, 3-D comedy film in 2011; and presently has ongoing performances in such cities as New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Berlin, and Tokyo. 

Russell Rinker, a longtime Blue Man performer, describes the show as composed of three personae, based on the original Blue Men, including the roles of scientist, trickster, and leader. These roles are frequently switched among the performers. Blue Men never speak, and Blue Men-in-training learn to use hive-mind techniques in order to think collectively, to attune the three players to become one onstage.

A Blue Man Group show is all about spectacle and fun; it is a kind of a family rock and roll dance party with dramatic and comic elements… if your hosts never spoke a word. And were bald and bright blue. It is unlike anything you have seen on stage, and it's playing for two nights, April 26th and 27th at the Concert Hall in Century II.

Sanda Moore Coleman received an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University in 1991. Since then, she has been the arts and community editor for The Martha's Vineyard Times, a teaching fellow at Harvard University, and an assistant editor at Image. In 2011, she received the Maureen Egan Writers Exchange prize for fiction from Poets & Writers magazine. She has spent more than 30 years performing, reviewing, and writing for theatre.