Everything about Blue Man Group’s “How to Be a Megastar 2.1” tour screams “bravado,” from its arena-rock environs to its eight-member band, light suits, bizarre instruments and neon bursts of water.
The group’s shows are typically built on a trio of mute, expressionless blue men — making the flashy subject matter of their current show all the more curious.
But the juxtaposition of these hard-rock cliches with Blue Man’s trademark blank characters is meant to translate the “Megastar” tour, now on its third leg, into an engaging experience.
“The whole rock-star mentality out there is so ego-driven, and we’re all bombarded with these pretentious messages,” said executive tour producer Paul Emery. “When you see it dismantled through a Blue Man Group perspective, it’s refreshing.”
The show will play the Pepsi Center Sunday, having honed its format in hundreds of cities internationally. “Megastar” is the descendant of a show that debuted in 2005, but draws elements from previous tours like 2003’s “The Complex Rock Tour” and employs them interactively.
“We wanted to take it to a greater level of absurdity,” Emery said. “It’s sort of a constant progression, because Blue Man’s always building more off of it, tweaking here and improving there. That’s why we call it 2.1 on this go-round, because it’s basically the same story theme but with an upgrade.”
Only the paint remains the same
Unlike a performance of “Les Miserables,” audiences can expect a different show every night. The core trio of Blue Men, with their latex bald caps, blue grease paint and black clothing, begin the show by purchasing a “how-to” manual on rock stardom, immediately involving audience members by “borrowing” their credit cards.
The group — backed by an eight-piece band and scores of colorful props — works its way through an interactive arena-rock setlist, aiming to expose the comedy inherent in such chest-thumping exercises by contrasting it with their naïve, egoless characters.
“We’ve been dropped into this situation of leading this rock band and audience,” said Tom Galassi, who plays one of the Blue Men. “At the center of the stage is a pile of PVC pipes of different lengths that we play, boat antennas that we swish through the air, and a piano on its side that we hit with a mallet.”
As with most Blue Men shows, it’s kid-friendly, particularly with all the spectacle and volume. But it’s also intended as oblique social commentary, addressing themes of technology, alienation and self-consciousness. The show’s press release sets the tone by dubbing arena-rock shows in general as “the most primal of group experiences.”
Galassi, a 10-year veteran of Blue Man Group, agrees.
“This is the biggest ritual we have now Thousands of people who don’t know each other coming together and having a shared experience,” Galassi said. “It’s just that we’re poking fun at the rock concert by putting on the most over-the-top, ridiculous one that we can.”
Loose concept gives longevity
Blue Man Group defines itself as “a creative organization dedicated to creating excitement-generating experiences for our audience and ourselves” — a vague, borderline corporate definition if ever there was one.
But it’s this loose concept that affords virtually unlimited experimentation within the brand and that has made it a cultural phenomenon since its debut as a performance-art trio in New York in the 1980s.
Blue Man Group is big business these days. As far as touring productions go, it stacks up to such cultural imports as the Wiggles and Cirque du Soleil, quirky international shows that reap tens of millions of dollars annually — or in the case of Cirque, hundreds of millions.
To many, it’s easier to grasp the appeal of those shows over Blue Man, a group that might seem to newbies like extras from a particularly inscrutable Kraftwerk video.
But consider the numbers: Blue Man Group has 50 people doing three-man shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Berlin and Oberhausen, Germany. Look around and you’ll see them everywhere, performing with Ricky Martin (yes, that Ricky Martin) at the Latin Grammys earlier this month, or with the Boston Pops and DJ Tiesto earlier this year.
They pop up regularly on “The Tonight Show,” maintain a touring children’s museum exhibit (which visited Denver this year), and have branched into film scoring, corporate events and merchandising. Their albums have gone gold and been nominated for Grammy Awards.
In his time with the group, Galassi has performed in front of Queen Elizabeth and toured Japan and Europe, among other places.
“I’ve probably done a few thousand shows with them,” Galassi, 31, said. “I’m never surprised to see what comes down the line.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
Blue Man Group.
Music/performance art. Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $49.50-$85. 303-830-8497 or
