Boy band musical mixes humor, heart
By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published April 24, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Photo by P. Switzer
Preston Ellis, left, and Timothy Wilson play Christian boy-band singers in Altar Boyz.
"We are the Altar Boyz," sing the five innocents onstage. "We're gonna alter your mind."
And the thing is: They did.
After 90 minutes of goofy but impressive choreography, pop pablum executed with a few outstanding voices and an overall aura of sweet playfulness, I was no longer ticking off the things about Altar Boyz that bothered me.
How could I, in the face of a show that was kind to itself and its audience? Altar Boyz presents itself as a straightforward concert by a Christian boy band, although in a twist from reality, they're Catholic rather than evangelical. There are no priest molestation jokes, no mean nun jokes, just gentle humor about not only the tight fit of wedging God into pop music, but the compromises performers have to make to maintain their onstage purity and the ones they have to make to survive in the music business.
The entire premise is an onstage concert, with an ace four-piece band upstage and a set by Brian Mallgrave laden with platforms, scaffolding and Gail J. Gober's lights. The band itself consists of what are, kindly speaking, archetypes: Matthew (Preston Ellis), the Dawson Leery-styled leader; Mark (John Pinto Jr.), the drama queen who may or may not reveal his love for Matthew; the thick-headed, just-out-of-rehab Luke (Timothy Wilson); the Latin lover Juan (Mauricio Perez) and Abraham the Jew (David Perlman).
Juan and Abraham get hit the hardest with the stereotype stick. Juan speaks with an accent that recalls Ricky Ricardo. He's a Menudo manque who repeatedly flirts with the audience. There's a fleeting reference to learning his accent in a Tijuana orphanage, but how much funnier if it were revealed to be marketing shtick.
Abraham, meanwhile, is weighed down with a fleet of cliches, from his braininess (he does Luke's homework), to the yarmulke he wears while singing his love for Jesus. It just sits a little uncomfortably.
Director Stephen Bourneuf also choreographs the show, and what makes it palatable is these boys can dance in intricately designed routines. Perez hip-swivels with the best of them, and Wilson pulls off impressive acrobatics. The book, by Kevin del Aguila, is fairly cloying and simplistic, but Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker have written songs that are as tuneful as they are amusing (with the exception of a rap number performed with unintelligible lyrics).
The heart and humor of the show lie with the character of Mark and Pinto's performance. His high tenor voice is astounding, and his personality serves as an onstage magnet, whether he's lifting an eyebrow and curling a lip or pulling off the show's funniest moment with nothing but a squeaky wheel. When he comes out - as a Catholic - you can't help but welcome him to the fold.
Altar Boyz
* Grade: B+
* When and where: 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd.
* Cost: $25 and up
* Information: 720-898-7200
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Suggest removal
Picasso writes:
After the past couple of excellent but certainly more dark productions at the Arvada Center ("Of Mice and Men" and the still running "House Of Blue Leaves") this new offering is pure enjoyable lighthearted entertainment. In an opinion I overheard an equal or better production when compared to the Altar Boyz's that's running Off-Broadway and in my own opinion, a must see! The only concern I had was the sound which I'm sure has been adjusted to the quality one expects at this venue.