Blue Men with a uniquely Japanese twist

A couple months ago, TokyoMango reader Craig invited me to check out the Blue Man Group show in Tokyo. 

Blue Man Group was started in NYC 20 years ago by three guys. One of the guys had had a vision of painting his entire face blue and doing funny mute tricks since he was a kid, so he teamed up with a creative guy and a business guy to create an off-Broadway show. (The original blue men, Phil Stanton, Chris Wink, and Matt Goldman, are still involved in the organization—which makes it kinda cool, like a little family.)

The Tokyo production kicked off about a year ago—they built an IKEA-like blue warehouse-like building at the tail end of Roppongi Hills, re-engineered the program to fit a Japanese audience, brought over some blue men, and set up an elaborate stage that made cleaning up all the water and paint after each show relatively easy.

I'd seen BMG once before—I must have been 8 or 9 years old. I went with my friend's church group to an outing to NYC from Princeton, NJ. It's pretty amazing that that same show has lasted this long, and continues to expand overseas.

Here's what's cool about the Tokyo show:
- There was a whole section where they showed giant screens filled with ASCII art.
- It's the most technologically advanced BMG production in the world. If guys in blue faces playing with paint don't float your boat but your kids insist on seeing BMG, this is probably your best bet.
- Since Japan is a country infamous for its tacit audience, you get quite a different reaction from the crowd when the blue men crack jokes or come down the aisle to pick out the people who take part in the audience participation segments. I got to meet one of the blue men after the show, and he said he actually enjoys bringing shy people up on stage and watching them break out of their shell.
- Pretty much everything else that's fun about BMG in the first place is still intact—the paint drums, the funny dancing, the giant tubes they use as instruments, etc.