Feeling Blue

As the touring production comes to the Valley, a member of the Blue Man Group talks about his show.

By Neil Cohen

Blue Man Group

A Blue World

Blue Man Group veteran says show shares joy and love

It's not easy being blue, or at least putting on the bald cap and painting every exposed inch a fetching cobalt color, but Blue Man Group member Patrick Newton wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm still just as in love with it as I was when I started," said Newton, who got the job in 2008 in the Las Vegas production that's still playing at the Venetian Resort. "It's still a total blast for me to do."

Newton recently left the Las Vegas cast to join the touring production, which will be on stage Nov. 1-6 at ASU Gammage in Tempe.

Blue Man Group started performing in 1987 and really took off in 1991 with their Off-Broadway show Tubes at the Astor Place Theatre. Twenty years later, the show is still amazing audiences with its take on information overload, technology and the beauty of accepting outsiders for who they are.

"It has a lot to offer to open-minded audiences to show them something about themselves or some sort of reflection upon society that you don't think about every day," Newton said.

For LGBT audiences, Newton said the show has a universal appeal. "You can be gay, you can be straight, you can be old, you can be young and still get something out of it," he said. "We don't speak at all in the show, so the language is something much more primal and it is something that can appeal to everyone."

Newton doesn't get to use his musical theater talents as a singer in the act, but his other passion comes in handy — he has played percussion since his youth.

One of five children raised in Lansing, Mich., by parents who were music teachers, Newton joined the Blue Man Group even before he graduated from Western Michigan University.

Not everyone can be a Blue Man. Applicants have to have musical ability and be between 5'10" and 6'1" with an athletic build. Most of all, they have to be able to play in the Blue Man Group's world of humor and wonder.

"You have to be able to play for two hours and let that joy and love kind of seep over into the audience and bring them into it as well," Newton said.

At times, there have even been women in the cast, although it would be hard to tell under the blue make-up and bald head.

Contrary to popular misconception, Blue Men do not have to shave their heads to join the group. "I'm rocking a pretty sick mullet now," Newton joked.

"One of the best things about this job is that what happens in the show varies from night to night and from show to show," he said. "Since we're interacting with members of the audience and bringing them up onstage to participate, there's a variable, so you never really know what's going to happen. I've had some crazy things happen — I've had a woman puke on me. That might be the weirdest thing that's occurred. It keeps it alive and exciting."

Newton said that he's grown tired the color blue. "I'm kind of a clothes whore and a shoe whore and I tend to stay away from blue now," he said, laughing. "I get flack for it when I wear blue and people know what I do." -E

VITAL STATISTICS

The Blue Man Group
Nov. 1-6
ASU Gammage
1200 S. Forest Ave., Tempe
Tickets: $20-$85
www.asugammage.com