Feeling blue: Beneath the skin of Blue Man Group

By NED O'REILLY

Sometimes you get to a show early, pick up your tickets and have time for a bite to eat next door. Sometimes you get to take in the atmosphere, browse the merchandise and read the program before the show starts. Not usually, though, are you greeted in the lobby by a dark blue mass of intertwining tubes adorning the ceilings and walls. Even more unusual is the experience of using the bathroom and hearing an endless loop of furious percussion beats with sparring vocal lines singing, "Bathroom … bathroom … the Blue Man lobby bathroom …" But in the case of Blue Man Group’s "Tubes," at Chicago’s Briar Street Theatre, such occurrences are the norm.

Blue Man Group’s first hit it big in New York thirteen years ago with "Tubes." After winning both the Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards, Blue Man Group was presented with one of its greatest honors when the Drama Desk Committee created a new category—Unique Theatrical Production—just for them. "Tubes" has since expanded to include productions in Boston (since 1995) and Chicago (since 1997). The group also toured briefly as a musical act to promote their recent CD "The Complex," and mounted a new show, "Live at Luxor," in Las Vegas. The original three Blue Men even appear on the Barenaked Ladies’ latest album, "Everything for Everyone," playing their trademark PVC tube percussion.

Blue Man Group has grown far beyond those original three members, adding actors like Bryce Flint-Somerville, 29, to the group’s long-running hit. There are seven actors working as Blue Man in Chicago. Three are scheduled per show and while Flint-Somerville has done doubles and triples before, the actors are usually scheduled so that no individual has to carry a huge load. "All the guys are great," he adds, "but they each have their own personalities. Some combinations are more dangerous."

Even out of makeup, Flint-Somerville looks surprisingly like a Blue Man—shaven head, big ears, wide open, intensely focused eyes. His calm demeanor also reflected a significant part of the Blue Man character making it easy to project him into the wordless, but inquisitive stage persona.

Flint-Somerville has spent five years as a Blue Man. After attending the Acting Conservatory at the North Carolina School of the Arts, he headed for New York to become an actor and landed the Blue Man gig. He learned the show in New York and spent two years with it in Boston before moving to Chicago. Always an actor first, Bryce picked up drumming "by the seat of my pants" after being cast in Blue Man Group, and now considers himself a pretty good percussionist. He’s not only there to play music, but to express himself through it.

His personal goal is to find the human truth within Blue Man, speaking of the group as a singular character, never as ‘one of the Blue Men.’ "The Blue Man is such a different being. You keep the emotion within the makeup. It could become an automaton," said Flint-Somerville, "This is the mistake a lot of actors make when they audition for Blue Man Group. Through a neutral mask, I can express humanness." He also said the challenge of performing mute it very freeing, "I can be whatever I want to be."

Flint-Somerville often takes on a character as Blue Man: priest, sergeant, hobo, businessman. He once did a whole show as mist. He has never needed to speak as Blue Man, though he does admit to having nightmares about speaking during a performance and being unable to shut up.

He emphatically added, several times, "The audience writes the show for themselves. The audience is the fourth Blue Man, the biggest X-factor in the show." His favorite sequence in the show is "Feast," which features an audience member coming up on the stage and interacting with the three performers while they eat. Flint-Somerville says he likes the sense of spontanaeity and risk. He describes "Feast" as not very controlled with lots of potential for danger.

Blue Man Group certainly has its groupies. One regular website visitor recently celebrated attending his 50th performance. Flint-Somerville notes the groupies celebrate themselves, but the repeat audience members don’t affect the performance any more than other members do.

You might think doing the same show would get stale and that audiences would stop turning out, yet Blue Man Group manages to maintain its market so well that they add a third daily performance during the holidays. I saw the show in 1998, but this past December was my first time back, and I was impressed with the nearly full house at a Tuesday matinee. I remembered most of the premises in "Tubes," but all the individual moments were fresh, funny and eye-popping—even the second time around.

I had forgotten how much music the show includes since last seeing it. While the first half of the ninety-minute performance contains many physical stunts and a lot of laughs, the second half features a number of drum and percussion-centered sequences. In addition, a dynamite 3-person band (drum kit, electric guitar and keyboard) accompanies the entire show.

Stunts, laughter, music—but is it art? "Yes," said Flint-Somerville, "It’s art. It’s entertaining and it’s on a broader scale, performance-arts-wise, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we’re still doing something creative."

How else could a guy spend an entire performance as "mist?"

Negative critiques of the show do matter to Flint-Somerville. Since it is part of his goal not to be a cutout, criticism can be motivating, but the most important thing is that "people get it. And if they don’t get it, fine. We’ve had people react in ways that completely take us off guard." Well-conceived and effective art should do just that. Flint-Somerville, a generous artist, is willing to concede that the response of the audience to Blue Man Group is part of what makes it art.