Have you seen or heard of the Blue Man Group? If you are looking for something to do as a family one evening whilst in Orlando Florida, that’s also a little bit different, then this might just be for you. As this series is all about things you can do outside of the parks, it may seem like a cheat, as Blue Man Group Florida is within Universal Studios, however you don’t actually need park tickets. The show venue is situated at City Walk, just before you get to the ticket section, behind the lake. You do need to pay for parking though, which at the time of writing this review they are as follows :
Daily parking Fees Per Vehicle
Prime Parking: $35, RV/Bus Parking: $25, Regular Parking: $22
Recently they have Introduced free self-parking after 6 pm for all guests not valid for Halloween Horror Nights™
We were offered a couple of tickets to see the show, but paid for our children to attend. Tickets seem to vary depending on the time of the year you visit, so I would recommend going on the BMG website. This will be an honest review though, as I think its important to say how you feel about things you are offered as a journalist or blogger, even if you’ve been given them for free. I also wanted to point out that I wasn’t asked to write about it, but I choose to. Photography is prohibited, so unfortunately I didn’t get to tape or photograph the live action.
So what did I think?
Ok, so though I had heard of the Blue Man Group I genuinely did not know what to expect and it definitely took me by surprise. We’d often seen billboards and adverts, especially whilst we were in the US and my lasting idea was it was a colourful rock music show, but that really was all I knew.
The Blue Man Group, to me overall was an audience participation theatre show, a real spectacle for the eyes, it definitely is funny and weird and kinda outrageous, but if you don’t believe me, how about the fact it’s now been seen by over 35 million people around the world? I personally adored the sections that were about music and brightly coloured paint. I also loved the comedic timing and the fact all could be revealed by the slightest movement of one of the threes heads.
I also really enjoyed that you could take a much deeper message from the show if you wanted to, and I loved the idea of these blue alien like creatures were commenting about consumerism and the crazy world of the internet and social media.
What I didn’t like.
Some parts of the show I didn’t find funny however, I’d say my taste isn’t really slapstick or silly humour, and it’s some of those sections that I didn’t love. I also found the section which celebrated certain members of the audience dragged on for far too long. However both of those, are the parts that the kids really belly laughed at. So on reflection there was a good mix for everyone.
Overall Impressions
When we first entered the show, I noticed the venue was much smaller than I thought it would be. I believe it seats around 1,000 people. This was definitely an advantage, as you really could see the expressions on the blue hued men as they splashed a hug amount of paint, ate marshmallows, drummed and interacted on stage. The Blue Men (I’m not sure if they are aliens or not, but they are definitely not of this world. Well, they express themselves without speaking, so language barriers aren’t a problem too.
The second thing I noticed, is that first section of the audience wore ponchos. I was a little surprised by this, but then as the show commenced I completely got it, but I’ll leave that there, as I don’t want to spoil the show. The show is very loud at times there is a three-piece “skeleton” band too, so I don’t think it would be suitable to anyone very sensitive to sound.
I would describe it as fun and family friendly, full of colour sound and humour. Something completely different to go and see in the evening. Couple that with dining at the City Walk, which has a fab array of resturants to try. Or having a pre show drink, and it would make a really lovely evening out. My children are 9 and 15 (at the time) and they both got different things from it, both really enjoyed it and the show definitely left us with lots to talk and laugh about.
Other posts about Orlando that you might be interested in :
Winter Park : Fun away from the theme parks.
Shopping : My hints and tips on shopping in Orlando.
Entertainment : Blue Man Group
Nature : Boggy Creek
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