Blue Man Group in Toronto at Panasonic Theatre

My wife and I celebrated our 2nd year Anniversay in Toronto this past weekend. We stayed at the Metropolitan, we dined at Hemispheres and caught "The Blue Man Group" at the Panasonic Theatre.

If you get the chance I recommend going to see this eclectic group of Blue Men most known for their colorful and bizarre promotion of everything Pentium 4.

After viewing the show I came back and did a little research on the Blue Men Group via the web and I guess this is a "franchise" of sorts, being that they have shows all over the world and that there is only three of them - they can't be everywhere at once obviously - so they make due by picking musicians/artists/actors that look like them, teach them the ropes of everything "Blue" and then the original three Blue Men sit back and let the money roll in. Of course the Original three do the big shows, videos and commercials. If you don't feel slighted by seeing carbon copies of the original - you will enjoy this show, because the Blue Men I saw were I'm sure - just as good as the Original.

I laughed throughout, was amazed by the lighting, was impressed by how well the band sounded and how well the Blue Men played their "PVC Piped Instruments". Read on for a more professional review of the show my wife and I saw.

I found a review that hit the mark with me, it was written by Martin Dentron of NYTheatre.com :

Blue Man Group, not content to rest on their laurels even after more than twelve successful years off-Broadway, have just "upgraded" their show. Among the new additions is a piece on the state of the rock world, where lip synched performances and rigid choreography have edged out more primal and authentic forms of musical expression. Another scene takes place in an Internet cafe where people can sit silently, surrounded by others to whom they will not talk while communicating via computer to people who aren't there. There's also a new segment about the history of animation.

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nytheatre.com review

Martin Denton · April 8, 2004

Like the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and the Big Apple Circus, Blue Man Group is now pretty much a bona fide New York City tradition: your visit to our town should definitely include a visit to the Astor Place Theatre to witness the aggressively silly antics of BMG—especially if you have children in tow, or are not too comfortable with spoken English.

The occasion for this re-review of Blue Man Group is the show's recent "upgrade"—a good 20 minutes (or so) of new material has been inserted, mostly in the evening's second half. If you're a BMG fan or veteran, this stuff might tempt you to make a return trip: the segment set in an Internet Cafe is particularly beguiling—both pointed thematically and singularly beautiful to witness, with a magically animated stick figure reading and writing emails in the foreground while a dizzying dance of LCD displays takes place behind him. There's an interesting bit about the history of animation which is fun, and a long and loud audience-participation thing about rock concert etiquette which is less so.

The rest of the show is just about as it always was, which is to say an entertaining mélange of giddy, goofy nuttiness, some of it ever-so-slightly preoccupied with "serious" issues such as the nature of art or post-modernism, but most of it concerned only with giving the audience as broadly silly a good time as possible. The three "Blue Men" who inhabit the show—played by a corps of fourteen cast members, including franchise creators Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink—are alien-type creatures. Their heads and hands are blue; they're clad in durable felt of an innocuous shade that reminds us of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein costume. They have a child's sense of wonder and of play as they alternately bang on just about anything in sight (mostly drums and other percussion instruments) and curiously investigate whatever's at hand—food, frequently; but also paint, paper, and other messy objects.

If it took itself seriously, it would be ponderous performance art; as it is, nobody in the theatre takes anything seriously and consequently a grand, foolish time is had by all. The experience begins with a crew member giving each person in the room a long strip of paper to play with, and that's just what you should do: play with it. (The lady in front of me fashioned a neat bow in her hair, for example.)

Play remains the order of the day as Blue Men (and front row inhabitants) are pelted with Cap'n Crunch cereal and marshmallows. The Men spew colored pellets onto whiteboard to create original paintings and hold up funny signs to create a game of silent wordplay. In one sketch, a lucky (or unlucky—depends upon your point of view) audience member joins the Men on stage for a Twinkie feast. The performers juggle, clown, and make music with consummate skill that belies their seeming innocence; they're backed by a raucous but accomplished three-piece band. The show is noisy almost all the time, hilarious a good deal of the time, and weirdly entrancing some of the time.

The ending should not be revealed because it's so strange, unexpected and ridiculous. Everyone in the room gets involved, with a neat strobe light effect making us look much cooler than we actually are during this unforgettable finale.

Blue Man Group is all about the senses—the five familiar ones, plus one that doesn't get free reign in theatres very often, the sense of fun. Dress comfortably, park your inhibitions at the door, relax, and enjoy.