CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 05, 2018

The (Mostly) Deep Meanings Behind Blue Man Group’s On-Stage Food

Chicago magazine | Dining & Drinking January 2018: Over 527 shows last year, the Blue Man Group went through roughly 18,500 marshmallows, 2,100 Twinkies, 2,000 pounds of Cap’n Crunch cereal, 26,300 pounds of Jell-O, 500 bars of Toblerone, and 67,300 bunches of bananas.

2 comments:

Mattox S. Reed said...

I remember seeing the blue man group on my first trip to New York with my grandparents a few years back. Going into it with little to know knowledge fo what the performance was like was one of the most interesting and shocking experiences of my life. The Blue man group has had a long time to work bugs out of their system and to work on their pieces to make them as captivating and entertaining as possible. The food was one of those things that I'd never really thought to much about at the time as it was just another ridiculous thing that was both attainable and absolutely absurd. The amount of food and the scale in which they need to have and produce food is crazy. This shows the dedication to the craft and the budgeting skills so that they are able to do these costly things night in and out and still work for decades.

Katie Pyzowski said...

I like that the food in this performance has meaning. In particular, I like how the group has almost created a play on words using the cereal as inspiration. I thought that using Cap'n Crunch because of the onomatopoeia in the name and then creating a sound based performance was very unique. I like unique sound effects, and this sounds like it would be very interesting to listen to. I also loved the meaning behind the Twinkie and banana gimmick. I do think that the entertainment industry need to get better at being environmentally friendly, and I like how this portion of the performance has two messages. The performance itself is a commentary on wasted food in the real people world, and the waste from the performance is composted appropriately. I have never seen a Blue Man Group show, but it seems that the added food elements are not only incredibly entertaining but also bring an engaging element to the experience. I would bet it is an experience worth seeing, or even being a part of.