Review: Blue Man Group’s Bluevolution at The Lowry is ‘an unmissable, out-of-this-world experience’

Manchester is Blue! Not something you usually hear so close to Old Trafford, but the Bluevolution World Tour has taken over.

The Blue Man Group have been around for over 30 years, featuring three silent blue men, the group have travelled the world with their unique blend of music and comedy. The trio use visually immersive and satirical humour to engage audiences without saying a word.

Blue Man Group’s Bluevolution at The Lowry

The audience participation starts before you’ve even sat down in your seats, the Blue Men were spotted serving drinks behind the bar and stealing people’s phones to take selfies before the show began.

Once inside the theatre, all eyes were on the audience.

The stage, outlined by a maze of white PVC piping and neon lights, had large screens with red text asking the audience politely to “not be digitally annoying during the show” and turn off any phones, which is pretty normal for a theatre show these days, but that was about the only normal thing to happen during the whole show.

When the lights go down, the text begins to change and the audience participation ramps up again with names of audience members popping up on the screen and everyone is asked to say hello, shout or sing at them.

The Manchester audience is often known to be a little loud and rowdy at times, but there seemed to be a lot more nervous laughter and muttering than over-the-top cheering during the opening of last night’s show, but this soon changed once The Blue Man Group took to the stage.

Iconic paint drumming

Their iconic paint drumming started the show with a bang.

Coming out in their simple black uniform with blue faces and hands, of course, the troublesome trio begin to spill neon paint across the drum kit, sending splashes of colour across the stage.

As the tempo increases, the fountains of pink and purple cover the trio and the front row!

This show does get VERY messy, there’s even a dedicated “poncho section” at the front, where audience members are given free blue waterproof ponchos to wear in the theatre – and they absolutely needed them.

Introducing: The Rockstar

For the first time, the Blue Man Group are joined by a non-blue-non-male member on this tour, “The Rockstar” as she’s more commonly known, supports the trio on stage as an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist, playing the drums and DJ-ing at the back of the stage throughout the show.

The Blue Man Group are known for their unconventional musical instruments and last night was no different, they used drain pipes, oversized drums, light sticks and more to entertain the audience.

“Unbeatable comedy”

In between the light shows and music is the unbeatable comedy, without saying a single word for over an hour and a half, the Blue Men had the audience howling with laughter.

Throughout the show they leave the stage to come down into the audience, wide eyed and side-eyeing everyone in their seats trying to find willing participants in their on-stage shenanigans.

Their visual slapstick comedy combined with their unusual look makes for a hilarious evening of entertainment, it’s like watching three aliens working together to discover instruments and human interactions.

They even managed to get the whole theatre standing up in their seats, waving their arms and “raising the roof”, just by gesturing with light up sticks – even the people on the top floor of the theatre were waving over the balconies.

The Blue Man Group: Bluevolution World Tour is a showcase of their talent and comedic timing and a true testament to their long standing career.

They are able to entertain audiences of all ages, there were young kids and pensioners all laughing together in the theatre, enjoying the colourful chaos happening on and off stage.

Tickets for Blue Man Group’s Bluevolution at The Lowry

If you’re looking for an unmissable out-of-this-world experience, The Blue Man Group are taking over The Lowry from the 2nd to the 6th of October this year.

You can get tickets by clicking here