Blue Man Group will pay $3M to end royalty dispute

Ian Pai always felt, he said, that he had played a core role in the success of the Blue Man Group, an avantgarde performance ensemble whose members appear as bright blue characters and use unorthodox instruments to create raw, percussive music.

He had worked with the ensemble in its early days, he said, serving as its music director for shows in several cities and helping to compose some of its music, build sets and create the group’s distinctive instruments, constructed from PVC pipe.

But years after the group’s ascendance, which included an off-Broadway run of more than 20 years, a Grammy-nominated album and annual revenue often estimated at $100 million, Pai said he had determined that the payments he was receiving for what he termed his contributions of “musical compositions and creative work” were not what he deserved.

So he sued in 2016, saying he felt betrayed by the group’s founders.

Court records indicate the suit has now been settled with an agreement in which the Blue Man Group will pay Pai more than $3 million to resolve his claims. As is common in lawsuit settlements, neither side would discuss the specific monetary figure or other terms of the agreement that was reached in April to end the case in New York State Supreme Court.

A reference to the rough size of the payout was included in a separate lawsuit filed by the Blue Man Group against its insurance company, Ironshore Indemnity, in an effort to force the company to contribute to the settlement.

In his suit, Pai had initially sought $150 million in both punitive and compensatory damages. The court dismissed some of his initial claims, but the case ended quickly after Pai took the stand to testify.

In response to a request for a comment, The Blue Man Group’s lawyer, Toby Butterfield, said Friday it was “happy to fully and finally resolve Mr. Pai’s claims, which Blue Man Group disputed both factually and legally from the outset.”

Pai’s lawyer, Robert D. Piliero, also reacted favorably to the outcome.

“Ian got to tell his story as the plaintiff,” he said Friday. “The defendants raised previous offers to the point where we could not refuse.”