Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Blue Man Group has been in Chicago for over ten years now. I finally got around to seeing them.

My tickets were free so I didn’t have to worry about the pinch of $64.00. If I didn’t see the show for free, I’m not sure I would have thought that the show equaled the price of admission.

Granted, I am seeing the production almost two decades too late. (It started in New York in 1991.) Back then, performance art, especially an entire stage show of it, was new and exciting. Last week, the show felt strangely dated. The tech elements felt quaint. And I’ve encountered the social commentary points in other more clever presentations.

My favorite part of the show had to do with an especially adept audience member who got pulled up onstage. She made the segment work. I think I may have enjoyed that part the best because she was an unpredictable element. This was the only part of the show that felt fresh and current.

The whole production works hard to make you feel as if you are a part of an artistic experience. But at the same time, they don’t bother to hide their preshow prep from you. When “random” and “spontaneous” moments happen during the show, it’s hard to go along when you know that the entire thing was engineered and meant to be that way.

It’s kind of like professional wrestling.

The legendary finale of the show never made much sense to me. Now that I finally got to be in the midst of it, it still doesn’t make sense to me.

But then—I’m a square. At least I know that.

Still, it is an entertaining and family-friendly production. If your child is ok with noise and flashing lights, you can bring them to this show. Chicago is a very family-friendly town in the daytime, but it can be hard to find activities that are enjoyable to both parents and kids after dinner is done. At the Briar Street Theatre, there is no swearing, no violence, and no inappropriate sexual content.

What there is are feats of physical prowess, rock music, and funny non-speaking Blue Men. The kids will love it.

As a whole, the Blue Man Group experience is not bad at all. I just don’t think it’s worth $64.00.

Tags: Chicago, Theater by Ms. SP
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Millennium Park’s Blockbuster Week (pdf link) continues with some amazing offerings. It was really too bad that the remnants of Hurricane Gustav came through and drenched the free taping of NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me last Thursday. Tonight’s Lyric Opera program is also in danger of receiving some rain, but I really hope it will pass us over.

As someone who has attended this particular event a couple of times, I’m amazed at how popular it has become. You just don’t think that tens of thousands of people will come out for free opera, but last year, the crowd overfilled the Great Lawn.

Unless you expect to get there very early to grab one of the actual seats, don’t worry too much about your particular spot on the lawn. You won’t be able to see anything anyways. People do talk and smoke on the surrounding sidewalks so if you are sensitive to that, a middle spot may be the best thing. The sound won’t be an issue.

If you really would like a seat to see the entire program, you’ll need to get there hours early. The line on the east side of the pavilion gets let in first—at about an hour and a half before the performance starts. The line starts forming well before that time of course.

Steppenwolf Theatre‘s crew presents its program on Monday night. The Joffrey Ballet dances on Thursday.

One other free concert to track is on September 25. Calexico performs. This group has really built up a strong following in Chicago. That should be a fun night.

Postscript added September 7: Don’t forget that a free concert is still a concert. The idiots right behind us must have thought a spontaneous picnic social somehow broke out because they decided it was alright to talk right over the program. Even when shushed, they still didn’t get it.

Tags: Chicago, Music, Theater by Ms. SP
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Chicago-area native William Peterson, probably best known as Gil Grissom on CSI, is going to be doing Conor McPherson’s “Dublin Carol” at the Steppenwolf Theatre this holiday season. The play is not a part of their subscription series and is only on sale right now to subscribers.

Many CSI fans seem to be very interested in this production. So as a subscriber, I’ll add the information I’ve been able to find out to what they have already released.

Run dates: November 13–December 21
Space: Steppenwolf Theatre Upstairs, 299-seats, farthest seats are still only about 30 feet from the stage
General tickets on sale: September 25, 2008
Ticket prices: Wednesday & Thursday evenings ($50), Friday evening & Saturday matinee ($55), Saturday evening ($70), Sunday evening ($50)

Tags: Chicago, Theater by Ms. SP
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