Blue Man Group revels in its unconventionality

It’s not high art, but it is fun. And for the Blue Man Group, inspiring an audience to leave its show smiling and marveling at its creativity is tantamount to U2 selling a million records in a week -- the definition of success.

For this current tour, which arrived at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday and runs through Sunday, the trio with the cobalt craniums revisited some of its best-known presentations -- the percussion exercises with white tubing, the drumming against tubs filled with a rainbow of paint -- and introduced a couple of timely social media-related visuals.

The creative minds behind the 20-year-old Blue Man Group deserve kudos for their keen insights about our world lacking any human touch. But social commentary aside, the troupe is at its most amusing when exchanging whimsical glances and seemingly doing nothing.

There is no dialogue in the 90-minute show (which runs without an intermission), which forces an audience to actually pay attention. That isn’t a challenge, considering the threesome is usually engaging in some bizarre behavior, such as tossing paintballs and marshmallows into each other’s mouths (another long-standing segment) or stalking the audience with their vaguely sinister stares.

Yes, that means you very well might get pulled from your seat to join the men onstage for a Twinkie dinner, a sweetly amusing scene that remains the show’s centerpiece.

But between the wickedly inventive visuals -- this crew does some amazing work with LED screens, shadows and lighting -- and the crunchy rock score provided by a four-piece band perched above the stage, boredom is never an issue.

The opening-night crowd seemed a mixture of Blue Man groupies who knew just when to yell “Freebird!” (you’ll see why) and season ticket holders who likely walked into the show unfamiliar with the extent of the act’s unconventionality.