The Blue Man looked bewildered. He had already stuffed five marshmallows into his mouth, but his fellow Blue Man was still tossing marshmallows to him — and he was still catching them. His mouth grew wider and wider.

Finally, he grabbed a plate, pressed his face onto it, and the marshmallow blob exited his mouth in a strange, confectionary sculpture. With a flourish, the Blue Man put a sign on the table that read: “$5,000.”

“It was not what I expected,” said Ryan Zlomek, media arts teacher at Manlius Pebble Hill School, who attended the Thursday night performance. “I came into it thinking it was more like a hybrid of STOMP and Jackson Pollack. It ended up being more like an iPhone commercial and awkward comedy and avant-garde.”

The marshmallow act was only the beginning of The Blue Man Group’s bizarre performance Thursday evening at The Landmark Theatre.

Running through Feb. 3, the extravaganza features multicolored light shows, musical performances with PVC pipes and deadpan audience interaction performed by three men dressed and painted entirely in blue. The Blue Man Group shows off a variety of musical and comedic acts, but the show is also a satire of current societal phenomena, such as the obsession with texting and smartphone apps.

The Blue Man Group interact with one another throughout the show without any vocalizations or expressions while playing music with strange and impressive instruments, such as xylophones made out of pipes. A rock band plays in the background, amidst a variety of screens. Sometimes the screens are interactive, such as The Blue Man Group pretending to use them as “GiPhones” — ginormous iPhones.

With a show this extensive, the management team made sure to act efficiently, realizing the enthusiasm from the cast and crew, and the value of the entertainment that they were providing.

“We love working with the producers of the show. Tyler Soltis, the company manager, is very excited about coming here,” said Deb Ricciardi, a Famous Artists presenter who helped set up the show at the theatre. “And one of the band members, Randy Wooten, was very excited about being home.”

Tyler Soltis, company manager of The Blue Man Group, also realized the attraction to a show this eclectic, mentioning the expansive work involved in putting it on.

“This show seems to be categorically loved,” Soltis said. “It’s a gigantic show, which is challenging with a small cast, but it’s one of the more fun shows I’ve put on.”

The show had improvised elements as well that warmed the audience. Some of these improvised moments included audience participation: A young woman was brought on stage and ate Twinkies with the group in a surreal dinner scene.

Another audience member picked to participate was Matt Rimualdo, West Genesee High School junior. Once onstage, The Blue Man Group dressed Rimualdo in a helmet and painter’s suit and escorted him backstage.

Then, as seen on a screen set up onstage, the audience watched as he was hosed down in blue paint, hooked up and suspended by his feet, and swung against a canvas.

A pink hose guzzled paint along the outline of his body. Rimualdo and his artwork were shown onstage and after the show.

“It was, well, kind of exhilarating, and kind of scary,” Rimualdo said. “They had told me what was going on beforehand, so I was OK with it. They really did hang me and used the paint.”

The final act of the show caught everyone’s excitement. It featured a light show of giant inflatable balls, which the group first played beats on, then released them into the audience. The crowd bounced around the flashing, colored air balloons while psychedelic lights and music played onstage.

Finally, a voice came on overhead that said, “Ladies and gentlemen, can we have your attention please? Ladies and gentlemen, can we please have your attention? We’d like to have our balls back.”

The show ended with an encore of the group’s most recognizable performance: drumming on barrels of paint. In a peak of percussion and paint, the audience stood up, cheering.

The audience left perplexed yet intrigued, and one audience member in particular was fascinated by the performance.

Said Zlomek, the media arts teacher: “It was really interesting how they incorporated the aspects of the technical and the performance, as well as how they used the stage. I’m still processing what I just saw.”

Published on February 3, 2013 at 6:25 pm

Contact Claire: cmdunder@syr.edu | @ClaireDunderman