Blast! (musical): History and Key Facts

Blast! is a Broadway production created by James Mason for Cook Group Incorporated, the director and organization formerly operating the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps.

It was the 2001 winner of the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event, and simultaneously received an Emmy Award nomination for and won the 2001 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography.

Blast!'s instrumentation is exclusively brass and percussion, a nod to the show's roots in the drum and bugle corps activity. Blast!'s performers use trumpets, flugelhorns, mellophones, baritone horns, tubas, and a full complement of percussion instruments including snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, xylophones, vibraphones, marimbas, timpani, and other standard percussion equipment. In addition, Blast! adds instruments not normally found in drum corps, such as French horns, concert euphoniums, trombones (including one on a unicycle during "Gee, Officer Krupke") and bass trombones, didgeridoos and synthesizers.

Blast! II Shockwave was written to include woodwind instruments, such as flute and saxophone. Accompanying the wind and percussion is the Visual Ensemble (or VE), a group of dancers who manipulate a variety of props, similar to a color guard.

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