Blue Man Group

The 2011-12 Broadway Across Canada season ended with a bang, a big blue bang. Blue Man Group, running til April 1 at the Jubilee (so get tickets now!), was a powerhouse finale to a season that started off with a Wicked rush.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we walked in. We (my BAC companion DJ Jazzy Geoff and myself) had made a point of not looking into what Blue Man Group was all about, and were assuming we were getting Stomp, from blue men. We could not have been more wrong. Yes, we got weird noises from unlikely sources, but the first four rows wearing plastic coats indicated we were going to be getting a lot more, and as fluorescent paint and twinkie gunk exploded, we knew that this was no Stomp (which was itself pretty remarkable).

This journey through an alien Wonderland was an absolute visual delight. And not only did it please the eyes, we learned how it pleased the eyes, through a bit of bio lecture on rods and cones. It was humorous as hell, and being as close to the stage as we were, we were able to catch the priceless expressions of confusion, delight, and mischief on the faces of the blue men.

I'm not typically a fan of stage productions that include audience participation, but as the blue men entered the audience looking for the victims, part of me was hoping I'd be dragged on stage for the next shenanigan (sadly, the guy three seats down was chosen instead). Still, it was hilarious to watch the great sports they did select got caught up in the crazy blue fun, and the finale was Audience Participation that had the entire auditorium on their feet. I don't want to ruin any surprises, but think Rock Concert Meets Broadway With Giant Balls.

If you have a chance to see this, either here or somewhere else, I highly recommend it. It was comical, thought-provoking, exhilarating. It had us shaking our badonkadonks, it had us waving our hands in the air like we just didn't care.

I will never be able to look at Captain Crunch the same way again.

This has been a bobert review.