Boy band spoof ‘Altar Boyz’ revels in ‘90s excess
“Altar Boyz,” the musical closing Center REPertory Company’s season at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, comes out of such a specific cultural moment that today, only 13 years after its debut, it comes off as a period piece. The 2004 hit off-Broadway musical parodies the boy band pop craze of the 1990s with groups like the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync. The preshow music plays a sampling of those bands in case anyone needs a refresher course.
Written by Kevin Del Aguila, the show takes the form of a concert of a super Christian boy band called the Altar Boyz. Their peppy songs (by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker) have lyrics like “Girl, You Make Me Wanna Wait” and “Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone.”
The Center REP production is hardly the Boyz’ first visit. SHN brought a touring production to San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre in 2007. Concord’s late Willows Theatre Company first produced it in the East Bay in 2008, and other groups have done it here and there ever since.
Directed and choreographed by Keith Pinto, this new production revels in 1990s excess. The dance moves are entertainingly over the top in their cheesiness. Victoria LivingstonHall’s costumes for the group are hilarious fashion disasters, all-white mishmashes of ripped pants and athletic gear, a mesh shirt here, a pleather jacket there, all bedecked with silvery studs and flair. The fourpiece backing band led by music director Ben Prince is dressed in similarly ludicrous white tracksuits.
Kate Boyd’s white and blue set consists of a semicircular platform surrounding the band and several diagonal pillars vaguely suggesting a pyramid, with flashing, multicolored concert lighting by Kurt Landisman.
Naturally enough, most of the guys have the names of the authors of the gospels. Sean Okuniewicz is boyish-voiced and square as Matthew, the ostensible leader of the group. The single-named Tyce is hilariously dramatic as Mark, who clearly has a crush on Matthew but isn’t ready to say it. Justin Sabino’s Luke is amusingly dim, going off cluelessly on literal-minded tangents, and Josh Ditto is full of infectious cheer as the thickly accented Juan. William Hoshida is an earnest bundle of wannabecool mannerisms and dated slang (such as adding “-izzle” to words) as Abraham, a Jewish guy who somehow wound up in a Catholic-themed band — and, in fact, writing the lyrics (fictionally, at least).
There isn’t a plot as such, but there’s a narrative thread involving an electronic device that purportedly monitors how many souls in the room are burdened with sin. The group’s goal is to get that number to zero by singing goofy pop songs about Jesus. Along the way they tell the story of how they got together, which is amusingly patched together from each member’s conflicting accounts, like the gospels of their namesakes.
It’s an awfully entertaining show, with comically awkward lyrics rife with supposedly accidental double entendres. One of the best gags is the collective gasp when Abraham says the group has evolved. Sure, it’s slightly funnier if you remember the boy bands it’s spoofing. In any case, as a tongue-in-cheek pop extravaganza it may not save any souls but it sure does lift one’s spirits.