Last night, my friends and I went down to the good old Pantages to see a show we really wanted to see when we were in the Big Apple last fall: Altar Boyz.
This is a spoof on a Christian boy band concert. It is excellent for many reasons, not the least of which is the music. Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham dance and sing with the best of them, all in an attempt to get the Sony Soul counter thing to go down to 0 lost souls in the theater. The songs include a lot of great numbers including "Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone" and "Get the Hell Out."
The characters are straight out of any boy band: There's the hunky leader, the gay one, the exotic one, the tough one, and the smart one. If you've ever been to any kind of Christian concert or boy band concert and hated every moment of it, you will love this spoof. It's a werid cross between the days when I was in love with The New Kids on the Block and the days when I went to many Bethel concerts. There's a hokey little forced prayer. There's a drive to save every soul in the audience even though their own souls are in trouble. There are dance routines that are silly to watch. There is a confession time where they read aloud the confessions that people have put in the box out front. It gets serious a time or two and, I think, pokes very good satirical fun at Christians' inability to deal with real hurting from time to time. There is so much to love about this musical.
One of my favorite lines of the whole show was "And the music beget lyrics, and the lyrics beget followers, and the followers begettin down."
The whole thing lasts only about 90 minutes, so there's no intermission, which is a bonus in my mind. The theater is gorgeous. We sat in the second row of the balcony (Row B, Seat 1), and I have to say that they were fantastic seats. I had plenty of leg room, especially because I was right behind the steps into our row. We hung our coats over the back of our seats because the next row was up a teir, and we had lots of room. The only downside to sitting in the balcony is that you can't see what's going on in the audience when the Altar Boyz go out into the crowd. If at all possible, you might want to try to be on the floor to get the whole effect. We did have to lean from time to time, too, so if you do choose balcony, you might want to choose the third row back.
On the whole, if you have a little time and if they aren't completely sold out, you should check out this musical. I laughed throughout, the venue is fantastic, the lyrics are hiliarious, and it's a perfect length. I highly recommend this show.
Posted by LoWriter at December 20, 2006 04:10 PM