Altar Boyz
At the Arts Club Revue Stage until Sept. 1
Tix: 604-687-1644. artsclub.com
The boyz are back and looking a wee bit older but no less fervent than when I saw them back in 2009. This time around I went with two 13-year-old boys (looking good in baseball caps and hoodies). I thought theyd get off on the showespecially Sara-Jeanne Hosies high-octane choreography and Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walkers music and lyrics.
My teenaged guests dont go to church, probably dont think of themselves as Christians, but both were departing the next morning for the second time this summer for the Christian camp on Anvil Island, which, they tell me, is a blast. As well as fun stuff like swimming, stand-up paddle boarding and pillow fights every night, they attend chapel for an hour every day and another hour discussing their values.
So the Altar Boyz seemed like a good fitand it was. However, Luke, a perceptive and articulate kid (as well as being a fearless skier and mountain biker) said he thought my review should, in his words, warn people that there was a lot of God and Jesus in Kevin Del Aguilas hit musical, billed as sinfully funny. And hes right. Fun and funny as it is and rocking as most of the songs are, the message is definitely capital C Christian.
Take the Altar Boyz stand on sex. Even if Matthew (Jeremy Crittenden) finds his Levis are real tight when hes around his girlfriend, hes going to wait for sex until theyre married. The kicker line in this song had both my teenaged friends laughing out loudeven a bit shocked. In Something About You, with the assistance of a woman in the audience, Matthew sings theres Something about you/That makes me want to wait/At least until our wedding date/So till then, Ill master... [pregnant pause]/My own faith. Big laugh but the concept must have seemed downright antediluvian to a couple of young teenaged boys.
Directed by Bill Millerd, Altar Boyz manages to be irreverent and reverent at the same time. This has to do with the appeal and energy that this cast of five (Crittenden, Geoff Stevens as Mark, Jak Barradell as Luke, Michael Culp as Juan and Brandyn Eddy as Abraham) serve up nightly on the Revue Stage. The characters are nicely individuated: Luke is the former bad-ass boy who did time in juvie recuperating from exhaustion. Barradell, who plays Luke, is the most exciting dancer of the bunch and he really can bust the breakdancing moves. Stevens Mark is so sweet and so joyfully gay and he brings the house down with Marks confession, which is not Im gaywhich is what we expect him to confessbut Im a Catholic. Mark was my guests favourite character and Culps Juan was a close second; what he can do with his pelvis ought to be illegal in public. Abraham, being the only Jew amongst the Catholics, takes a bit of a back pew until the surprising conclusion, and thats when Eddy brings it home. Crittendens Matthew is just so gosh-darned nice.
The onstage band of four, under the musical direction of Jim Hodgkinson, did not look like the rockers the kids hoped for but they were definitely capable of putting out great sound. Like, totally.
You cant argue with the do-unto-others and the fitting in messages: It doesnt matter/If youre different and out of place/It doesnt matter/If theres acne upon your face. This is stuff that teenagers, especially, need to know.
Altar Boyz doesnt hurt a bit. The guys dont pass the collection plate, they dont make you confess your sins and chances are pretty good youll leave the Revue Theatre singing, We are the Altar Boyz/Were gonna knock the devil down/We are the Altar Boyz/And I think youll find/Were gonna alter your mind.
