They are silent, bald, blue-painted performers who mix art with music and comedy.
The Blue Man Group is a unique and unconventional entertainment experience, which has drawn audiences for decades, with over 50 million people already having seen their show.
The show is now coming to the South Coast — and has a new character. Alongside the three bald blue men, for the first time, is a woman! She's named 'Rockstar' and is played by Mackenna Tolfa.
"Blue Man Group is, I think, a very difficult show to describe," Tolfa told KCLU. "A lot of the Blue Man stuff is drumming, creating music out of what seems to us to be everyday objects."
Blue Man Group is not just a show, it’s a total immersive experience, and — explains Tolfa, it's a chance to reconnect with our inner – and outer – child and experience unexpected joy.
"It's a show for all ages. There is no speaking from the actors at all in the show. So much of the show is about breaking the fourth wall that is typically there for a lot of other live shows. And sometimes I think it puts the audience members out of their comfort zone in the best possible way, just because you don't necessarily expect what happens in the show to happen," she said.
"I think it's kind of the purest form of experiencing joy and going back to your childlike self."
Tolfa said the goal of a Blue Man Group show is to celebrate all that we have in common as human beings — our curiosity, our creativity, and our need for community.
"The most simplistic definition, I would say, Blue Man, is about connecting with your fellow humans on a more human level than maybe we are able to these days in our digital world. Just experiencing live music together and connecting in that way."
On why the performers are blue, she said, "A lot of the decisions for the design of the show actually come from real art pieces. So that's part of it, but also, I think, just making the Blue Men as non-human as possible and picking a color that isn't associated with any particular race and making everyone feel involved in the storytelling."
The Blue Man Group is performing in Santa Barbara at the Granada Theater on Wednesday, May 6, and at the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks from May 8 to 10.
