Briar Street Theatre — Attraction in Lake View Township

I decided to review Briar Street Theatre, rather than the actual Blue Man Group. BMG have nothing to do with my experience. I bought tickets to BMG this summer and took my wife for a great show she had never been to. Parking was super tight, due to a festival up the street. The closest, cheapest parking I found, was literally a 45 minute walk away. It was a beautiful day, so we didn’t mind. I’m a police officer and always carry an off duty firearm, especially in Chicago. With the amount of robberies and shootings, it’s an unfortunate routine that I will never change. We get to Briar Street Theatre, and prior to entering, security is wanding and searching everyone. I advise security that I am a police officer and I’m carrying a gun. “Sorry, you can’t come in the theater” is his reply. Wow. I ask to speak to a manager and let her know I’m a police officer and would like to attend the show and there nothing to worry about. I’m a competent person that is allowed by state law to always be armed. She advises me they don’t allow anyone to be armed in the theater. So I ask if they have a safe available where I can store my gun and she says no. She asks me to put my weapon in my car and I tell her I parked 45 minutes away. She tells me that it’s ok, we can still come enjoy the show, which is set to start in 20 minutes. So I tell her I’ll be over an hour late, to a show I paid $150 for. “No worries”, she says. “Its two and a half hours long, so you won’t miss much”. So now I’m fuming, because I will literally be throwing $150 into the trash. So I ask for a refund, and they deny my refund because I bought the tickets through a third party vendor and I have to take it up with them. AWESOME. So now I’m literally, the angriest I have ever been in a long time. I try to weigh my options. Finally, I learn that there’s a police station a 20 minute walk away. I take a gamble and walk with my wife there...right through the PACKED festival going on between the theater and the police station. There’s no other way to get around the festival and all roads are blocked. I beg security to let me through because there’s a charge at the gate, and I explain that I’m just trying to get go the PD on the other side. He let’s me in, we push our way through the event and make it to the police station. I explain the situation and they tell me they’re not surprised and I’m actually not the only cop that’s been turned away by Briar Street Theater that day. They let me secure my gun in one of their lockers and the desk Sergeant tells me that there was once a time when Briar Street Theater would allow police officers to attend shows for free and there were no worries about being armed. Suddenly, they’re turning everyone away. There’s nothing on their website, no warning, no disclosure when you buy their tickets. Had there been, I would have just left my gun at home. So in the end, we had to beg to reenter the festival to get through, push our way back through the crowd, again, and got to the show 30 minutes late. After that, we walked back to the car, and rather than jump right on the expressway, we had to drive all the way back north, to the police station, AROUND the festival, through bumper to bumper traffic. I grabbed my gun and thanked CPD, then drove south through more festival traffic and back home. So thank you, BST staff, for completely crapping all over what would have been a memorable event, you completely ruined it for us. We’re never going back. We’ll catch BMG at some other venue, other than BST. If some random thug decides to one day rob the place, he can rest assured that NO ONE in that theater will pose a threat. No one will be...

We went to see the show on New Year's Eve (7 pm show). They incorporated some technology into their "act" which was interesting and prodigious. On the other hand, the technology could have been cut shorter. It seemed to go on forever. They performed a skit regarding Twinkies which I found a bit boring (they used a young 20-something female from the audience). They grabbed another audience member and created a very cool piece of art work on a huge canvas by slamming his entire body (face first) into the canvas (he was wearing protective gear from head to toe). Now, this was definitely entertaining! In fact, it was probably the highlight of the entire show. Do not sit in the first 7 rows or you will get wet and/or dirty with food products tossed about (plastic ponchos are provided to those who sit in these rows). Audience participation is encouraged. The very end was fun -- extra large balls dropped down from the ceiling along with streamers as loud music played. The balls were cool as they changed to different colors. The plastic pipes hanging from the ceiling came to life and appeared to be dancing as they twisted about. It was somewhat magical. There are no bad seats in this small theater. Parking across the street was $15 (cash only) so we were in and out of the lot quickly. I thought the show was okay, but not over-the-top outstanding. It is great entertainment for the entire family. Who should see the show? It is a great place to take a date or for a "date" with your spouse. It is also appropriate for children 12 and over. The only negative is that the theater is old, worn out, small and seats are not very comfortable with very...

Briar Street Theater is the the Blue Man Group home theater. The inside of the theater lobby is sci-fi looking with piping and cool paintings converting some of the famous international art pieces into blue man characters. The piping is not just for decorations, but also like a scavenger hunt to figure out which pipe ends where - try it as a fun date activity. Drinks and water are available for purchase and can be brought into the theater.

The Blue Man Group is very creative, funny, and transcends age and gender. Appropriate for all age groups and for NON-ENGLISH speaking audience. I think this is so precious considering what a large melting pot Chicago is. I warmly recommend this show to everyone, even if there is a slightly immature part that caters mostly to kids (but hey, we're all kids on the inside).

Theater seating: like with most theaters, seating in the middle is best, but overall most seats are good. If you want to leave the theater with specks of color, the purchase seating in the first couple of rows. If you're doing that I recommend wearing all white and then leaving with your own souvenir/piece of art courtesy of Blue Man Group, like I saw group of 10 do while I was there.

This theater is short walk away from Belmont red and brown line train. It's also in a good area to find a place to eat/grab coffee...