Blue Man Group ends NYC shows after over 30 years

New York and Chicago can expect a blue Christmas this year – but after that, the color could soon run out.

The Blue Man Group — an entertainment spectacle featuring body paint and bald men — announced Friday that it was ending its residencies in New York and Chicago. General manager Jack Kenn said in two press releases that the final shows will be February 2nd in New York and January 5th in Chicago.

“Blue Man Group is unlike anything else in the world and is undeniably one of the most iconic and successful entertainment productions due to its hard-working cast, crew and creative team. It is thanks to them that these shows have captured millions of hearts night after night and we offer our deepest thanks,” Kenn said in the press release.

The announcement marks the end of an era for the troupe, which first performed at the Astor Place Theater in Manhattan in 1991. For over 30 years, the wide-eyed, closed-lipped men have offered both tourists and New Yorkers the opportunity to experience a whimsical off-Broadway production.

Equal parts acrobatics and slapstick comedy, the group’s website describes the show as a “euphoric celebration of human connection through art, music, comedy and nonverbal communication.”

In a category all its own, the series’ staying power can be attributed in part to its genre challenge. Not a musical, but not a circus either, the Blue Men solve problems and make fun of each other on stage, always tactile, but also always surprised by their own bodies and the world around them.

Dipped in a striking cobalt hue, they appear in groups of three, made up of a rotating cast of characters (though you may never notice).

The performances are intended to be family-friendly and “consistently feature new music, fresh stories, customized instruments and sensory-stimulating graphics,” the group says.

The closures in New York and Chicago are a result of the overall disruption to live theater. Stage productions, a branch of show business that cannot be enjoyed from the couch, experienced a crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic and still have not fully recovered. Streaming may also be hurting live theater sales as some viewers have become accustomed to it and now prefer to enjoy entertainment at home.

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