Blue Man Group

[Antagonist]

This is a drumming/physical theatre show which has obviously been born out of Stomp and various Industrial shows (Einsturzende Neubauten comes to mind). In some ways it blows Stomp off the map with its comments on art, music and the Internet, in otherways it falls victim to the over-the-topness which plagues West End theatre (the live band are great but a rather unnecessary addition to the music created on stage).

Definitely recommended for its technical inventiveness, fourth-wall smashing, audience haranguing, UV light exploiting and paint throwing brilliance.

Not recommended for the squeamish. (no, really.)

[drunkmonkey]

ohhh that sounds like fun :D

[SP]

I was invited along to the first London performance and well, it was pretty amazing. They really interact with and involve the audience. I was very pleasantly surprised.

[Flux]

Aye, as was I :) The show rocked! Really wasn't expecting that, but it was utterly brilliant. If you want to see a show of surreal genuis, check the Blue Man Group.

[star-gazer]

blue man group isnt like any other theatre production ive ever seen before it goes against most of the conventions that other performances rigidly follow-in short it was most excellant! lol-i honestly didnt expect a hell of a lot of the content of that performance

but i heavilly disagree with antagonist i think all aspects of the music were needed-they drive the show!the music helps include the audience in the festivities with any part of that missing i think that the show wouldnt flow so well!

[Flux]

True, the music was a major atmosphere enhancer (plus in response to: "it falls victim to the over-the-topness which plagues West End theatre", it's worth mentioning that they play all over the world [with some fans following them no less!] so it's not really a West End Theatre production...we just got lucky with it being here for a while)

A special mention has to go out to the shows climax tho...that shit was trippy! :D

[star-gazer]

A special mention has to go out to the shows climax tho...that shit was trippy! :D

too right!-the things that came down from the ceiling were like twists of dna..im not too sure what they were meant to be but the fact they were uv made up for that by half!

yeah blue man group is by no means london based...didnt it start off small on the streets of new york?and they built it up from there into a show over the years!-i think thats why everything seems to be thought through and doesnt lack any formal elements..

Some productions can get so caught up in themselves that they begin to lose a lot of what entertains the audience.For example recently i saw The royal hunt for the sun-and whoever wrote it got so caught up in the monologues that the whole thing didnt seem to climax as the audience lost interest half way through.This is because theres been so much attention put in to make it spectacular visually(costumes,set etc) that they have overlooked the little things like entertaining the spectators!Whilst you can still appreciate the way the monologues are written people generally do not have attention spans the size of the atlantic (especially people like us!) and blue man group caters for this! lol