Blue Man Group / Alexandra Theatre / Birmingham

Last night we took a trip across to the West Midlands, and to the stunning Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham to take in the first night of the Blue Man Group UK tour. The Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed back in 1987. Probably best known for their innovative plastic tube drumming routines, their stage productions incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Their performers, known as Blue Men, have their skin painted blue. They remain muted during shows and always appear in groups of three. The company has continuing shows in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas and New York City.

The Alexandra is a magnificent venue, with great sight lines and a compact design which means the audience feel right on top of the performance.

I took my seat in the stalls, and the stage is surrounded by an intricate white plastic piping design, and an arrangement of screens at the back of the stage. As with many shows, the screens show messages, about not using phones, or recording the show, but the messages are funny, obscure and entertaining.

As the show starts the music and lights start up and the screen sparks into life again with a series of increasingly strange messages which had us all institches. Someone in the audience had been gifted a ticket by their colleagues, someone else had a birthday and we were instructed to talk (not sing lol) Happy Birthday to them. Then we’re told Helen (two seats along from me and thoruoughly embarrassed) has a bad headache. We’ve asked to all help her by reading out steps to help. Close your eyes and relax, think of a cow in a field….. now kill the cow…..

Finally the screens tell us that one lucky audience member in the second row, will now lead us in a rendition of the National Anthem, and suddenly the lights go out and a bright spot illumuniates one poor soul !

The performance is broken in to sections, almost like a comedy sketch show. The three Blue Men are supported by a drummer up on a gantry over the stage.

The three Blue Men step out onto the stage where there are three large oil barrel drums. The centrasl character starts to drum, as the other two start squirting coloured fluid onto the drum skins, creating stunning visual water effects.

Another section, has the Blue Men tapping in passwords to giant virtual phones, resulting in a rush of span which they can’t stop resulting in the online ordering of goods. Stepping offstage, they ‘open the door’ and return with boxes of Cap’n Crunch. A kind of old school slapstick section ensues of eating Cap’n Crunch and making a mass.

This is interrupted by a bright spotlight and a song picking out and highlighting a group of late arrivals being escorted to their seats.

The iconic tube drums are introduced by a video segment about connections. Very Matrix like we’re taken on an electronic journey that concludes that the one network that touches us all, is domestic plumbing. A giant rig with wild, interconnected pipes rolls out from the back of the stage and their pipe drumming segment starts.

It is a hugely impressive performance, both in terms of the engineering of the rig, but the musical prowes of the Blue Men.

Audience participation is a staple of the performance, and there is a wide range of innovate interactions. First two audience members are picked out to sit on stage, and enact a scene trying to get them to romantically interact to much hilarity.

Next up, a camera and light on the end of a cable is brought out and pointed at members of the front row. Cleverly for one individual, they slowly move the amera towards his face…. Closer and closer towards his open mouth….. and in. Cleverly its cut with footage of an endoscopy, so creating the illusion of a deep dive into them, and then p[ulling back out.

In another segment, someone is selected, dressed in a white jump suit and crash helmet and escorted back stage. Paited head to toe in blue paint, made to lie on the floor, they are hoisted up by the ankles and swung at a canvas, creating a life size body splash painting. Returning to the stage to huge applause, they are escorted to their seat, clutching their unique Blue Man artwork !

The whole time, the Blue Men remain silent. They have a (Star Trek) Lt. Data innocence about their persona, with tilted head movements, wide eyes and an inquisitive gaze at anything of interest.

For the final audience interaction, we’re all involved as they use red aircraft landing wands to instruct us to start, as the screen goes through the 5 Rock Concert Movements , which we all enthusiastically do, while the pound out a ferocious club beat on the tubes.

The show is over an hour and half long, with no intermission, ut the time flies by, through a mix of visual stunning performance, and fear at being called up next lol.

As I said right at the start, everyone has heard of the Blue Men and their drumming, but their show is so so much more than that. Its innovative, funny, and interactive, and brilliantly combines comedy, music, engineering and showmanship all rolled into one.

I genuinely haven’t laughed so much at a show in ages. I loved it from start to finish, and most certainly will be seeing them again.