Something Blue: Blue Man Group Tubes

Blue Man Group Tubes is a symphony of color and light and movement and sound that fills the unassuming space of the Charles Playhouse with its own brand (and trademark) of theatrical experience. Three silent drummers, a trinity of muted artistic expression, invite us to reconsider what we take for granted about our world and how we interact with it. When is a gumball a gumball, and when is it a tangible piece of color waiting to be reshaped and splattered on a canvas? When is a silhouette a representation of a thing and when is the thing itself? Most importantly, how many marshmallows can that guy fit into his mouth? These are just some of the probing questions invited by three vibrant mimes with a penchant for banging out “Go Ask Alice” on plastic tubes.

For all the cheering of the masses that Blue Man Group inspires, it seems that its reputation as a high-energy, alternative theater experience comes from the audience as opposed to from the production itself. Perhaps this is a product of a long and tiring run, or growing pains as what started as three friends ballooned into a nation-wide business, but Tubes relies upon the audience members to entertain themselves a bit too heavily. Opening packages of Twinkies with a saw, covering a man’s head with Cap’n Crunch and painting a canvas by slapping a paint-smeared human body into it make the performance seem too like a frat party with a $53 cover charge.

This is not to say that parts of Tubes are not visually and aurally stunning. The combination of color and sound that merge into a viscerally percussive assault on the senses as seemingly disembodied and luminous heads guide eruptions of red and yellow from their musical instruments is inspiring. Likewise, the ingenuity involved in the production can be entertaining in its own right. If we say that the premise of Blue Man Group, to the extent that it has one, is the exploration of the beauty of the simplistic, then the sequence in which the trio assembles a giant slide whistle-drum out of piping should be praised not only for its originality but also the creative adaptation and application of a basic musical concept.

Given the merits of the production’s highest points of ingenuity and creativity, it comes as a disappointment that the show’s culminating achievement—the oft-cited descent of a crepe paper ceiling that swallows the audience into a psychadellic human collage—rests solely (and literally) in the hands of the audience. The performers demonstrate that they are capable of carrying the experience on their own performative merits, so we must wonder why they do not even attempt to do so in the equivalent of their 11 o’clock number.

That said, the structure of the show allows for an audience that is ready and willing to create its own excitement to soar beyond more traditional theatrical experiences in the sheer adrenaline rush of experiencing Blue Man Group. For those of us looking to let loose, to go wild, to scream in public or to make that sound that they used to make on The Arsenio Hall Show—you know the one—Blue Man Group can provide a brief respite from our collective inhibitions.

BLUE MAN GROUP TUBES

created by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and

Chris Wink

Charles Playhouse