Theatre - Altar Boyz - Athenaeum Theatre
I had been looking forward to seeing Altar Boyz for months. It’s a play about a (mostly) Christian boy band singing songs that lift your spirit, give you a giggle and praise the lord all at once – who could resist? After reading a very scathing review of the show in the Sydney Morning Herald, I was interested to see for myself what the reviewer found so offensive. Unlike them, I wasn’t disappointed.
Overall it’s a great show – cleverly written songs, some fun choreography (and who doesn’t love a bit of chorey?) and a bit of eye candy for those rare moments when either the script lost my attention for a moment, or for when they weren’t talking about kneeling in front of a big organ.
The show plays upon the stereotypes so well worn in boy bands – there’s the song-writing lead singer Matthew who’s the serious one and can only think of making it big. Mark, the obviously gay one who’s madly in love with Matthew and choreographs all the boys’ routines. Luke, the white boy gangsta of the group who has been to some substance abuse type clinic, and who suffers from ‘exhaustion’ more than once. Then there’s Juan, the Latino (actually Mexican) heartthrob, whose pelvis gyrates as his eyes scan the crown endlessly for the next lucky young lady looking to make it backstage, and lastly Abraham. While Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan (a very clever reference to the Gospel) all have the lord in their Christian hearts, Abraham is the Jewish one.
My main criticism of the show would be that it suffered in-between songs as there was no real storyline driving things along. This was the last concert of their Raise The Praise national tour, the aim of the concert being to reduce the number of burdened souls in the audience by the end, which they tracked using the ‘Soul Sensor DX-12’.
Along with the lack of a storyline, was a lack of humour as well. It just wasn’t as funny as I’d expected it to be. In saying that though, it was easy and a pleasure to watch, and while I appreciated the stereotyping, I thought that Mark was just too camp and too much of a prancing queen at times.
The boys all have excellent voices and there are some nice harmonies as you’d expect with a boy band – all of the cast members clearly revel in their roles. While highlights include (God Put The) Rhythm In Me, Something About You (Makes Me Wanna Wait) and I Believe, all of the songs are fun, laden with double entendre and had the audience whooping and dancing in their seats.
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