What do you get if you combine music, mime, comedy and performance art with a little bit of audience participation? Well the answer is The Blue Man Group Show at Universal City walk.
Performing daily at the newly refurbished and specially adapted Sharp Aquos Theatre, which is close to the famous Hard Rock Café, The Blue Man Group is quite unlike most shows you will see in the Orlando area.
The Theatre is actually the former Soundstage 18, which housed Nickelodeon until it closed in 2005. The new theatre contains just over 1000 seats, and is separated into five "zones, " Zones 1-4, and the "Poncho" zone. The poncho zone, which consists of the first four rows of the theatre, has particular meaning. To sit here you are provided with a poncho to protect your clothing as things fly from the stage into the audience although when we went no one got really covered with anything.
Consisting of three performers supported by a small group of very good musicians these guys entertain and amuse for an hour and a half without saying a word yet managing to convey everything they need to the audience by using music and fantastic facial expressions.
They are dressed all in black and the name comes from the fact they have latex over their heads and faces and it is coloured blue which means only their eyes are really visible and they use them to convey all sorts of emotions including curiosity, surprise and wonder as well as contempt and disbelief.
The music comes from a weird and wonderful set of instruments that are made from piping –one they play is called the “drumbone “ a combination of a drum and trombone which takes all three men to play to the more common drums which also help to convey their thoughts and feelings.
Parts of the show are in darkness and they use lasers and flashing moving lights, so if you have people in your group that are a bit wary they may need reassurance but there is nothing frightening in the show at any point - unless of course (like my husband) you are adamantly against audience participation in any form in which case be aware they do select audience members to take part in sketches. They preselect a couple to be slightly ridiculed but it is not in a nasty way and all adds to the comedy feeling of the show. One thing you cannot get out of though is the participation towards the end, which involves rather a lot of paper although I won’t tell you exactly what it is –you will have to see the show .
If you read any of the literature about the BMG you learn they use all sort of different themes in their show to convey what they want to but personally I just saw it as a great fun show that was completely different to anything I have seen before so I sat back and enjoyed it rather than tried to dissect it.
Performing daily at the newly refurbished and specially adapted Sharp Aquos Theatre, which is close to the famous Hard Rock Café, The Blue Man Group is quite unlike most shows you will see in the Orlando area.
The Theatre is actually the former Soundstage 18, which housed Nickelodeon until it closed in 2005. The new theatre contains just over 1000 seats, and is separated into five "zones, " Zones 1-4, and the "Poncho" zone. The poncho zone, which consists of the first four rows of the theatre, has particular meaning. To sit here you are provided with a poncho to protect your clothing as things fly from the stage into the audience although when we went no one got really covered with anything.
Consisting of three performers supported by a small group of very good musicians these guys entertain and amuse for an hour and a half without saying a word yet managing to convey everything they need to the audience by using music and fantastic facial expressions.
They are dressed all in black and the name comes from the fact they have latex over their heads and faces and it is coloured blue which means only their eyes are really visible and they use them to convey all sorts of emotions including curiosity, surprise and wonder as well as contempt and disbelief.
The music comes from a weird and wonderful set of instruments that are made from piping –one they play is called the “drumbone “ a combination of a drum and trombone which takes all three men to play to the more common drums which also help to convey their thoughts and feelings.
Parts of the show are in darkness and they use lasers and flashing moving lights, so if you have people in your group that are a bit wary they may need reassurance but there is nothing frightening in the show at any point - unless of course (like my husband) you are adamantly against audience participation in any form in which case be aware they do select audience members to take part in sketches. They preselect a couple to be slightly ridiculed but it is not in a nasty way and all adds to the comedy feeling of the show. One thing you cannot get out of though is the participation towards the end, which involves rather a lot of paper although I won’t tell you exactly what it is –you will have to see the show .
If you read any of the literature about the BMG you learn they use all sort of different themes in their show to convey what they want to but personally I just saw it as a great fun show that was completely different to anything I have seen before so I sat back and enjoyed it rather than tried to dissect it.