Click here for a photo showcase of the group's Tuesday performance.

Technopop with razzle dazzle. Physical comedy in technicolor. An impromptu party the audience helps create. Silly, inventive spectacle.

But not exactly mindless. What those three silent, bald, blue guys do is actually very clever, and technologically sophisticated.

Right from the start Tuesday night, Blue Man Group was different from any Broadway touring show this reviewer has seen at the Orpheum Theater.

Going in, the publicist asked if I'd like earplugs. Definitely a first, but entirely unnecessary, as it turned out. My eardrums are not ringing.

Then when I settled in, I spied several rows of people seated in what would normally be the orchestra pit. Most were covered in clear plastic, anticipating the splashy paint antics Blue Man Group is famous for.

Overall, the audience was younger, more animated and ranged more widely in age than that for most Broadway shows, with lots of families and kids. Also more packed than any opening night I can remember since "The Lion King" — 2,358 of the 2,600 seats filled.

A sort of prelude featured message boards to get audience participation going, prompting cheers and shout-outs to individuals by name.

And then the show began.

How to describe what Blue Man Group does? Hmmm. They bang on things. They turn plastic pipe into melodic drums. They play a huge sort of marimba. They beat snare drums onto which they pour paint in primary colors, spraying rainbows several feet high. They bang a huge drum that sends out a sound you can feel bodily.

They make music ranging from classical to Lady Gaga, with a synth-pop feel.

They react and interact silently — often humorously — with each other and the audience. They shine lights out into the crowd and use live video cameras that flash themselves and the audience — which is a performer-participant — onto big video screens.

They get a couple of lucky people up onto the stage for featured numbers that involve a Twinkie dinner party and body painting — as in using an entire body as a brush on canvas. They catch things with their mouths — and proceed to make paintings with the projectiles.

They interact with brightly colored images on three large high-definition screens that drop in and out of a black void, as well as with entire walls of LED images. The possibility for sight gags feels endless — and some of the gags are contemporary riffs on routines as old as the Marx Brothers.

They preside over visual spectacle, including a wild grand finale that will delight everyone from kids to College World Series fans to geriatrics who miss New Year's Eve bashes.

Kalen Allmandinger, Kirk Massey and Brian Tavener played the three Blue Men, aided and abetted by musicians Julian Cassanetti, Jerry Kops, Michael Petrucci and Ramsey Roustom. Two more musicians and three more Blue Men rotate into and out of the lineup, depending on the performance.

The show, about 90 minutes without intermission, was clearly a huge hit with the crowd. I enjoyed it, though I probably wasn't as wild about it as those around me.

Tickets are fast disappearing. Shows with best availability are Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday night's finale.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com