Behind the blue

Those who enjoy the color of the summer sky rarely take to an extreme of donning the shade all over their face. Foster City-native Musante embraces blue — particularly blue makeup — often as one of the three men in the "Blue Man Group” performing at Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco through Sunday, June 19.

Musante was around the stage early in life. His mother, an improv actress, took Musante to shows. He has vivid memories of being on the side of the stage listening to the free-flowing ideas turn into skits while reading a book and clinging to a plastic dinosaur.

While at Bowditch Middle School, Musante put down the book and dinosaur to join the cast of the school musical. So many children were involved in the play, and his mom was directing it, so the move was appropriate. And Musante found a love of being on stage.

"After that, I kind of fell into a performing arts routine,” he said.

He enrolled at San Mateo High School and took advantage of its performing arts program while also playing soccer. While at San Mateo High, Musante was a staple within the drama department. He enjoyed the mix of students who participated in the craft. It wasn’t until his senior year, when Musante played the lead role in Sweeney Todd as the murderous barber, that he realized his love.

It was this experience that helped Musante decide between heading to the University of California at Los Angeles to participate in its prestigious acting program or going east to study to be a doctor.

"I remember having this moment across the table from my parents. … I think they were relieved when I said ‘I’m not going to be a doctor. I’m going to be an actor,’” he said.

Once he graduated from UCLA, Musante auditioned for a lot of different things including the "Blue Man Group.”

"Just the way that they conducted the interview process, I knew that it was something I wanted to do,” Musante said.

Four years later, Musante is based in New York and continues his run as one of the famous blue men. He loves the mix of improv, music and technology while being forced to communicate with an audience non-verbally. San Francisco is the first stop in a national tour for the interactive show that includes comedy, music, technology and ever-changing multimedia.

Musante has also taken advantage of his downtime. Working last year with a friend from college, Summer Shapiro, the two created an original piece called "Legs and All.” The show had a pretty successful run between New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orlando. It’s been recognized with numerous awards.

For the time being, the focus is on being blue. It takes about 30 minutes to transform into one of the blue performers. Putting on the cap over Musante’s hair takes the longest.

"I encourage people to come who have already seen the show. This show is the newest, most modern version of what the show is going to be. It’s a bit of the old but a bit of the very new. There are elements of technology that barely existed for more than a year that we use on stage. It’s kind of the greatest hits over the years but also the direction that the company is going in,” he said.

"Blue Man Group” runs through Sunday, July 19 at the Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St. at the corner of Taylor and Market and Sixth streets. Tickets range from $50 to $200. For more information and tickets visit http://shnsf.com or call (888) 746-1799.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by email: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.