Imagine Blue Man Group expanding its roster, developing the ability to harmonize and turning from blue to white. That, in essence, is “Voca People,” about an intergalactic singing group.
OK, they’re not really from outer space — they’re actually based in Israel. But the conceit of its creators, Lior Kalfo and Shai Fishman, is that the Voca People are aliens who have crash-landed on Earth and can return to their home planet only by recharging their rocket ship with musical energy.
Or — as one of the bald, ruby-lipped figures puts it, in an accent resembling Andy Kaufman’s Latka from “Taxi” — “Life is music, music is life.”
And so the eight-member group charge up, delivering both snippets and full versions of about 70 songs, all performed without musical accompaniment — that is, a cappella. They do mix in a little beat box-style percussion and hip-hop scratching, plus some elaborate comic routines, many of which involve audience participation. Consider yourself warned.
The set list doesn’t exactly break new ground. It includes pop hits by Michael Jackson, Elvis, Madonna, The Beatles and ABBA; themes from the James Bond and “Pink Panther” flicks, “Rocky” and “E.T.”; bits of Beethoven, Mozart and other composers strung together in “Hooked on Classics” fashion; and full-length versions of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and, appropriately enough, the Doors’ “People Are Strange.”
Thanks to the terrific vocals and Fishman’s ingenious arrangements, the music is a great deal of fun — in small doses. The group is a YouTube sensation, with some 20 million hits. But what’s terrifically engaging for five or 10 minutes begins to wear thin over the course of an hour and a half.
Not that the audience seemed to mind. They gleefully did whatever was asked of them — like the young woman who let herself be slung over the shoulder of a strapping singer.
“Voca People” could well join the ranks of such tourist bait as “Stomp” and “Fuerza Bruta” — assuming, of course, that these aliens can’t phone home.