Altar Boyz

Synopsis

The musical is presented in real time as the final concert of the national "Raise the Praise" tour staged by the five-member group the Altar Boyz. Four of the group's members, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan, apparently are named after the authors of the four canonical Christian Gospels. The fifth member is Abraham, who, the group explains in the show's opening number, is Jewish. The members of the group address the audience directly and refer to the venue and location in which the performance is taking place. The Altar Boyz perform their songs, with choreographed dancing in the style of boy bands, and present several scenes concerning the group and its origins, as well as each member's strengths and demons, as part of the concert.

During the show, the Altar Boyz repeatedly turn to a machine on stage, the "Soul Sensor DX-12," which has a display that they explain shows the number of burdened souls in the theatre. Their goal is to reduce the number on the machine to zero by the end of the concert.

Production history

Directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, Altar Boyz debuted at the 47th Street Theatre (The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre) in New York City as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival in September 2004. The NYMF cast included Cheyenne Jackson as Matthew, Tyler Maynard as Mark, Andy Karl as Luke, Ryan Duncan as Juan, and David Josefsberg as Abraham. Marc Kudisch performed the pre-recorded role of "G.O.D." Due to the nature of the festival, the NYMF run was limited to eighth performances on an irregular schedule over the course of a few weeks.

After 16 preview performances, the show opened Off Broadway at Stage 4 of Dodger Stages (now New World Stages) on March 1, 2005. The cast was the same as in the NYMF production, except Scott Porter played the part of Matthew and Shadoe Stevens played the pre-recorded role of "G.O.D." The production closed on January 10, 2010 after 2,032 regular performances, making it the ninth longest-running Off-Broadway musical of all time. The closing cast starred Michael Kadin Craig as Matthew, Travis Nesbitt as Mark, Lee Markham as Luke, Mauricio Pérez as Juan, and Ravi Roth as Abraham.

There have been touring productions of Altar Boyz in the United States (in 2007, 2008 and 2009) and resident productions in Chicago (2007), and Korea, Hungary, Finland, Australia, the Philippines and Japan as well as numerous regional and amateur productions. In 2013 it was performed as part of the Adelaide Fringe.

Awards and nominations

Cast recording

Altar Boyz was recorded in March 2005 and was released on May 17, 2005 by Ghostlight Records (an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records).