Blue Man Goop?

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TERMINATOR 3 PREMIERE

Has the Blue Man Groupalready created a mess in Toronto without even putting on a show? AsRichard Ouzounianexplained inThe Toronto Star, the Blue Man Group is going anti-union (woa! bad move in Canada, eh?) Have they taken Toronto for granted, as if it were some low rent version of an American city?


Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star, January 20, 2005:

"Blue is the new gold. That's the message Clear Channel Theatrical Entertainment was sending out yesterday at a media event to announce the imminent arrival in Toronto of that phenomenon known as the Blue Man Group.

The certifiably demented happening, in which three blue-faced performers create their own unique brand of theatrical havoc, now generates annual revenues in excess of $125 million (Canadian) and has been running since 1991. It's currently on view in five cities around the world.

Starting this summer, you can add Toronto this list.

"We always wanted to play here," Matt Goldman, one of the original Blue Men said yesterday. "We just had to wait until the time was right."

[Ed: Right for what? Not theatre, apparently...]

What it didn't have was the right technical requirements to house a show that is seemingly simple but incredibly complex. The Blue Man Group needed a refurbished theatre and now Clear Channel is forking out a reported $15 million to make it happen.

[Ed: That's the old New Yorker theater on Yonge Street]

As previously reported, Panasonic is coming up with a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal to have its name on the renovated facility and all systems are go for an opening early in June.

[Ed: If the Blue Man Group doesn't fly, the damn theater will be too expensive for anyone to use! At least when it was dangerously disintegrating it was affordable!]

Goldman, Stanton and Wink were street performers (shades of Cirque du Soleil) who developed their "search for a community through art," in Stanton's words, in places as bizarre as the sidewalk outside of Manhattan's once-grand Copacabana nightclub.

In 1991, they set up shop at the seedy Astor Place Theatre on the Lower East Side. The critics raved, the crowds came and the show has been running ever since.

Boston followed in 1995, Chicago in 1997, Las Vegas in 2000 and Berlin in 2004. It's still playing to packed houses in those locations.

No wonder everyone involved is bullish that this will be the vehicle with broad enough appeal to turn around the perception that tourist audiences have abandoned Toronto since the SARS epidemic of 2003.

In Wink's words, "We'd like to think that some indie-techno-pop-musician would take his 7-year-old niece to see us and bring along his grandparents as well."

[Ed: Yeah, and I'd like a solid gold toilet seat, but that's not in the cards, baby!]

The 15-minute excerpt of Blue Man magic that was offered to the press had all the usual ingredients: flashing lights, splashing paint, a four-piece day-glo band and the Blue Men themselves -- fierce, loveable, inquisitive pieces of human dada.

[Ed: Well, that's what I look for in a man!]

The roles in the Toronto production have not been cast, but a group of more than 100 protesters showed up outside the Phoenix for an "informational picket" on behalf of Canadian Actors' Equity, protesting the fact that Blue Man Group is not a signatory to any union.

[Ed: I guess they feel actors should be seen and not heard?]

The two sides are meeting this Friday to try and work things out, but as a token of good faith, the Clear Channel organization sent out coffee to warm the demonstrators shivering in the sub-zero temperatures."

[Ed: What? No donuts?]
Where is Norma Rae when you need her!
By Suzy Conn on January 20, 2005 10:09 PM | | Comments (0)


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