Wheaton News

Adam Erdossy ’03 reflects on 18 years as a Blue Man Group performer

In a world of constant noise, they never spoke. In a sea of performers seeking fame, they were a trio of cobalt anonymity. For three decades, the Blue Man Group captivated audiences in Boston, a bizarre and beautiful spectacle of music, mischief and paint-splattered mayhem.

In July, after 30 years, the lights dimmed for the final time. It was the end of an era, and for Adam Erdossy ’03, it was the conclusion of an extraordinary 18-year journey. He may be as surprised as anyone that he enjoyed such a long tenure as a blue man.

When he first saw BMG as a college student, it did not resonate with Erdossy. But one moment made him laugh really hard.

“They invited an audience member on stage and wiggled a Jello-like substance to see how they reacted,” he recalled. “Then, suddenly the Jello was catapulted into the audience with the Blue Men innocently conveying ‘wow, that’s never happened before!’ I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen, the randomness of it, and the total destruction of the fourth wall. At that time I was steeped in the world of Greek tragedy, so that Jello launch blew my mind.”

Gaining experience at Wheaton College

Erdossy was interested in world travel when he enrolled at Wheaton and quickly found a second home on campus and in the theater. “At Wheaton, acting classes with Professors Pamela Bongas and David Fox didn’t feel like work to me,” he said. “It was fun, and the more I put into it the more I got out.”

He took theater courses during a Study Abroad trip to Australia and spent a semester at the National Theater Institute in Connecticut. During that time, he spent two weeks studying at the Moscow Art Theater. As a senior, he played Creon in “Antigone” and the lead in “Tartuffe.”

“Wheaton College was a great match for me,” Erdossy shared. “As a student, it allowed you to form your own path, give you options and just the right amount of nudging and support that you needed.”

He took a wide variety of courses, including Ethnomusicology with Professor Matthew Allen. With his help, Erdossy landed a Davis Fellowship and conducted research on theater and dance in India.

“In Western culture these two are often separated,” he said. “That is certainly the path that led me to Blue Man Group, which combines music and physicality in this unique, weird, awesome performance.”

After graduating from Wheaton with a degree in theatre and dramatic literature, Erdossy joined a theater ensemble in New York City, and took advantage of opportunities to learn and survive in a challenging field. He served as a technical director at a theater and a stagehand at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He also did lighting work for soap operas, worked in cafes and did some street canvassing for Greenpeace.

The Blue Man Group audition

A classmate from the National Theater Institute saw a listing for BMG auditions. Erdossy decided to give it a go. In his audition, he was asked to use drumsticks, but didn’t know how to hold them properly. “They taught me how to hold the sticks, then gave me a couple of things to try,” he explained. “I tried and struggled, and then I’d ask questions.” It lasted about two minutes and Erdossy thought he blew it.

A month later BMG invited him to an acting audition.

“In the middle of that audition I was making a complete joke out of myself and one of the auditioners started recording me with a little camcorder,” Ersdossy recalled. “I walked out of that audition also unsure of how I had done. Before I had gotten to the street they called me and invited me to the next audition. That’s how it all started.”

After auditioning, Erdossy started to understand Blue Man Group. “They didn’t want to see what I could do. They wanted to see who I was,” he said. “So when you get presented with something that is challenging or that you don’t fully understand, how you react to it reveals a lot about you. I didn’t get defensive, I asked questions.”

After 18 years performing as a Blue Man, Erdossy shared his appreciation for his role in the iconic show.

“Blue Man is unique, yet he embodies the best and most pure elements of being human,” he shared. “He’s innocent and inexhaustibly curious. In my opinion, this was the magic and allure of both getting to perform in and to experience the Blue Man show.

As a BMG member he joined casts in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Tokyo—where he met his wife, Seiko, and their son, Leo, was born. He also participated in U.S., Australia and world tours, but always returned home.

Boston’s shows ran 4–8 times each week, depending on the week and season. More than 4.5 million people attended a performance during its three decades at the Charles Playhouse.

Each night, it took about 45 minutes for Erdossy to transform into a Blue Man. A bald cap made of silicon was glued down to cover his ears and hair, then blue makeup was applied to the neck and face.

“For such a simple transformation physically, the emotional, metaphorical and magical transformation that happens is really remarkable,” Erdossy said, admitting that learning to trust the character was the most challenging part of the role. “You have to be open and vulnerable, willing to let your inner life out to play and interact with the world around you.

“Whatever happened in the show, no matter how off script or crazy it became, it was a gift, a tremendous opportunity to explore and be alive in that specific moment with that cast, musicians and audience. It is a deep feeling of connection we just don’t experience enough of in our daily lives.

Reflections on two decades of BMG

Overall, Erdossy says that BMG has been an incredible experience. “I’ve always been a world traveler. How I view people around me has been changed by going places where I was the outsider. When you are in an uncomfortable place and people show you kindness, your capacity and understanding of empathy evolves and deepens. That began during a trip to South Korea and Japan during the winter break of my sophomore year and continued during my semester in Australia. Wheaton helped open my eyes to that experience and to consider myself a global citizen.”

During the performances, Erdossy most appreciated playing unique music with talented musicians and the profound interactions with the audience. “I have tremendous respect for people who trusted me to bring them on stage, especially the people that were nervous,” he explained. “It never ceased to amaze me how deeply we could connect and communicate without uttering a word. We were also working against a force that is pulling us apart in today’s society and in those moments in the show we sliced through that to connect with and celebrate each other.”

Erdossy shared that among many things, he will miss the community of people that formed around this character. “It was a communal phenomenon to realize that we’re all more than just the role we played. An oddball, super talented, collection of cool people came together and fit right in with Blue Man Group.”

With the show in Boston closed, Erdossy is moving to his wife’s hometown in southern Japan, where her mother and brothers live. There he hopes to teach a workshop that has previously taught at Wheaton— one created with Stephanie Burlington Daniels ’97, professor of theatre. He is working on a film with a friend and may also do some photography and acting.

“Blue Man is one of the few long-term theater gigs that you could depend on,” he reflected. “But there is so much out there, so many talented creator. I am indeed sad to close this chapter in my life, but also very excited about what’s next.”

He’s eternally thankful for the role Blue Man has played in his journey.

“I spent 18 years doing Blue Man and it’s such a huge part of my life. It will always be. If I had the opportunity to do it, I would absolutely jump on it again.”