An oral history of the bluemangroup — the wildly successful show starring strange bald men painted in Yves Klein blue
Illustration: André Carrilho On May 21, 1988, eight people carried a coffin into Central Park to conduct a “funeral for the ’80s.” Inside it were items meant to represent the culture of the decade: a Rambo doll, tiny figures wearing suits , bags of a white substance resembling crack. The participants, most of whom had painted their skin blue, piled the objects into a metal drum along with some flash paper, which they lit on fire. They called themselves the Blue Man Group.
Juliet Lofaro, props coordinator, 1991–94: I was living with Chris and Matt. Chris grew up in the apartment, and one day I found a book he made as a kid called My Blue World, with pictures of a blue man. Wink: Punk had died, Studio 54 was closed, and it was the Reagan ’80s. That was when the term yuppie started. MTV came along and turned all these cool bands into singing monkeys. For us, the decade didn’t seem cool.
Goldman: I have a visceral recollection of the first time the three of us got bald and blue. We went on the roof and just sort of looked at each other, realizing this character was special.Lofaro: The funeral for the ’80s came about in the living room. Wink: We’d learned that if you put the blue makeup on your hands, everything you touched would get blue and slippery. So we got white surgical gloves and had someone dye them. Eventually, somebody called the glove company and said, “Hey, can you dye them for us?” They said, “Yeah.” We couldn’t believe it.
David P. “Squid” Quinn, sound management and crew, 1991–96: Within three months, it became clear we weren’t going anywhere. If there was a night where we didn’t get a standing ovation, it became a whole discussion. Quinn: I had never done est, but elements of it were incorporated into our interactions. Whenever I thought one of them was being an asshole, I’d say, “Listen, dude, I have a problem with you right now.” Part of what made the community tight was we could say if we had a problem.
Wes Day, a Blue Man since 1997: The three guys were usually in alignment artistically, socially, and financially. God bless them for trying to create a utopian corporation. Tim Aumiller, began as a Blue Man in 1998, now head of artistic direction: We used to have tiny apartments on Sullivan Street where Blue Men stayed during training.
Bhurin Sead, a Blue Man since 2008: I’ve heard before that the Blue Man doesn’t belong to any race, but that feels like a fantasy. In practice, the Blue Men have mostly been white men.Judd: There would be times when people would comment on me being African American during the meet and greet as if they knew my secret. I’m thinking, Does it matter?
Josh Matthews, began as a drummer in 1998, now music director for Astor Place Theatre: Nothing makes you realize how male the character is until you train a woman — even the way the character stands. It wasn’t intended that way, but it happened. Willy Burkhardt, president, 2010–13: They’d been doing the same thing for 20 years. Chris and Phil hired me to become a change agent. But one mistake we made is that I got deeply involved in the creative side of things.Burkhardt: After I accepted the job, I said to Chris and Phil, “Would you let me go through tryouts?” I wanted to see how they instilled this ethos into a person. My appointment hadn’t been announced yet, so it was Undercover Boss.
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