They are bald. They are blue.

Usually seen in groups of three, they have been among us since the late 1980s.

Thirty-five million people in 35 countries have seen them. Have you?

If not you’ll get a chance when the Blue Man Group visits Toledo for two shows at the Stranahan Theater on Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.  And if you have? Blue Man Adam Zuick said this is a brand-new show worth seeing.

"The American Theatre Guild is thrilled to bring Blue Man Group back to the Stranahan Theater. This is a show that is the definition of escapism and is a complete blast for all ages!” said Craig Aikman, director of programming for the American Theatre Guild.

Just because the Blue Men don’t speak doesn’t mean silence rules the theater. There’s plenty of  activity and noise for the audience to soak in, said Zuick, who’s been touring with the group since 2014. “There’s a lot of lights and music and it’s loud, and it does have aspects of rock concerts. It’s definitely got a lot more than just the music,” Zuick said. “It’s a total theatrical experience.”

The premise is that these three men, dropped in our environment, are beings that interact with humans in an unfamiliar world.

They are curious and innocent. 

“The Blue Men don’t really know what’s going on,” Zuick said. “They’re in your space; they kinda have to figure out what they can do to entertain you.”

A Blue Man, Zuick said, is kind of broken-down version of the man who plays him.

“They’re innocent, spontaneous versions of ourselves, and we just kinda get to play on stage, so it’s a real fun character to play,” he said. “The Blue Man character is different for each guy, but that’s because everyone is a different person. That’s kinda the fun of it.” 

A band travels with the Blue Men, but they like to make music, too, either with rare instruments or instruments that were invented for them and by them. They include the Chapman stick, a string instrument invented in the 1970s; the spinulum that is controlled by rotating a wheel that plucks steel guitar strings; the electric zither, an 86-stringed table instrument; a cimbalom, an instrument from Hungary, and of course, various percussion instruments made from PVC pipes, including the thongophone and the drum bone.

It takes a special skill to play some of these, Zuick said, and he’s happy he has a musical theater and piano background.

It’s the drumming on the PVC pipes that makes quite a splash, which is why plastic wrap is a must for the venue and the audience as well. Part of the act is the paint drum, which creates a vibrant display of both sound and color.

“The show in general is quite messy,” Zuick said. “You can definitely tell when we’ve finished our show because there’s a bunch of paint and random stuff all over the stage. We leave our mark, that’s for sure.”

The group feeds off the audience as the audience is the fourth member of the group, he said. But how can they communicate with anyone and not speak?

“They say the eyes are the window to the soul,” Zuick said, but for the Blue Men, that’s just one way to communicate.

And while the show has a basic format, Zuick said anything can happen. One of the three might get an idea, and it’s up to the other two to follow or not. If they follow, that’s called flocking in Blue-Man speak.

“If one guy wants to go off and do something, we’re all going,” Zuick said.

Audience members interact with the Blue Men on stage, and then the Blue Men go out into the audience to “ask” questions, as the group is always looking to find ways to entertain the audience

The Blue Men can’t even say anything to their back-up band. The musicians have to improvise as well.

“On a nightly basis it changes, depending on the environment and how the Blue Men are responding to things and how long it’s taking,” Zuick said. Which means, if the two Blue Men are “talking” about something serious, the music has to reflect that; same if the “conversation” is lighthearted and fun.

The group began in 1987, and the Cirque de Soleil bought Blue Man Productions in 2017. It has enjoyed wild success over the years, but has been touring only since 2013. 

As an actor, Zuick realized when he showed up to his audition how much improvisation skills mattered for this particular job.

“I really didn’t know Blue Man and the show. ... I didn’t know what the character was or what all the show in general was,” Zuick said. “Like a lot of people who come to the show, they don’t know what to expect. That’s kinda the magical way to experience Blue Man.”

It wasn’t like auditions he had gone through for a musical or a play.

“For most auditions you kind of plan out your monologue and the song you’re going to sing, whatever it may be, depending on what you’re doing,” he said. “It’s usually something that you’ve practiced. That’s the audition, and then if they call you back [you] might sing something from the show.”

But heading into the a Blue Man audience, the only preparation is to know there is no preparation.

“So you come into the space, and essentially you do what the director tells you to do,” he said.

It started off with simple exercises to gauge how well an actor can express emotions nonverbally.

“Then it kind of gets more and more complicated, where they start making the things you’re trying to portray more drastic and more involved,” Zuick said. “They’ll have three guys do the audition all at once, so they feel how you are at communicating nonverbally with each other.”

In order to do that, Zuick said, “they’ll do different things like throw a random object in the middle of the floor and say it’s some kind of a bomb and that you have to deactivate it.

“Deactivating a bomb is a super weird thing to do if you’re auditioning with two other guys that have no idea what’s going on and you can’t talk to them. It’s super memorable and also very revealing. I mean, you have to be willing to do very strange, weird things in an environment that you’re not used to with a couple other guys while direction is watching ... Because of that, it was a very strange, weird, magical experience, and one of the auditions I’ll never forget.

“It’s a very complicated strange, vulnerable place ... because the Blue Men, they’re up there, they don’t speak, they try to create an environment that’s fun for the audience.”

Improv, he says, only works if there’s trust among the performers in that vulnerable place.

“That’s a big part of the Blue Man show: You gotta trust that the other two guys are on the same page with you, and they’ll have your back if you go for something,” Zuick said.

While each show has the potential to be different from the last one, Zuick said, this tour is totally new.

“This version of the show is a completely new experience,” Zuick said. “The set is much more expansive than the other Blue Man shows have ever been.”

In the other shows, the Blue Men have been dropped into your environment. But in this version, the audience is in the blue men’s, Zuick said.

“We’re in our shop where we create our instruments, where we create our music, where we do all our skits and things. It’s kind of a different vibe to it. You’re kind of transported to our world,” he said.

And Zuick and his other Blue Men are inviting you in to share it with them

“We’re excited for people to experience it,” he said.

First Published January 10, 2023, 2:22 p.m.