The bald truth is ‘Blue Man Group’ still shines

Friday, Oct. 14, 2005 | 7:11 a.m.

When: 7 nightly. Additional show 10 p.m. Saturdays.

Where: Venetian's Blue Man Group Theatre.

Rating (out of five stars): *****

I first reviewed "Blue Man Group" two years ago, when it was at the Luxor.

I saw it again Monday after it moved up the street to the Venetian.

You might call this a new Blue review.

But there isn't that much new about the production, other than a slightly larger theater -- 1,760 seats compared with 1,200 at the Luxor

The new Blue Man Group Theatre has been touted as being larger but more intimate, with a balcony that allows for more fans to be closer to the stage.

I didn't experience a feeling of intimacy, but that was never an issue for me anyway.

This is a fun show, bizarre to the extreme, created by geniuses who think so far outside the entertainment box that you marvel at their childlike ingenuity.

Cap'n Crunch cereal as a musical instrument?

PVC pipes?

One new bit involves the nose of a jet airliner onstage, but it wasn't anything special.

There are more media toys for the group to play with at the Venetian, more and bigger screens. But everything that made this one of the most enjoyable, offbeat shows in Vegas is still there.

It opens with messages scrolling across electronic boards, identifying fans in the audience, and it closes with a wave of tissue paper washing over the room, burying everyone under a white sea.

In between there is the scene in which one Blue Man alternately tosses 30 marshmallows into the mouth of another Blue Man, and paint-filled gum balls into the mouth of the third Blue Man. Out of the two Blue Men's mouths come a weird sculpture and a modernistic painting spewed onto a canvas.

There is the classic drum scene in which two cast members pour red, yellow and blue paint on top of drums beaten by the third, splashing the men with the paint.

"Blue Man Group" -- created in New York in 1987 by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink -- continues to be a creative masterpiece that for 90 minutes transports you into a different world.

Even after almost 20 years, the production is not showing any signs of aging as it appeals to the child in all of us.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or jerry@lasvegassun.com.

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