Lisa Traiger has been an arts writer since 1985. Currently she contributes to The Washington Post Weekend section On Stage page. She was a freelance dance critic for The Washington Post Style section from 1997-2006. Her pieces on the cultural and performing arts appear regularly in the Washington Jewish Week and on DanceViewTimes.com. She has written for Washingtonian, Moment magazine, The Forward, Dance Magazine, Pointe, Stagebill, Sondheim Review, Asian Week, the Boston Jewish Advocate, the Atlanta Jewish Times, Washington City Paper and Washington Review. A first-place recipient of the 2007 Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association award for arts and entertainment writing, Traiger also received two Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Arts Criticism from the American Jewish Press Association. She earned an M.F.A. in choreogr! aphy from the University of Maryland, College Park and holds B.A.s in English and Dance. As a New York Times Fellow, Traiger participated in the Institute for Dance Criticism at the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C. A board member of the Dance Critics Association from 1991-93, she returned to the board from 2005 to 2008, and served as its co-president during the 2006-07 season. Traiger currently serves on the advisory board of the Dance Notation Bureau. e-mail : lisatraiger@aol.com
If you're going to feel uncomfortable at the sight of a yarmulke-wearing teen heartthrob singing "Give it Up for Christ," then pass on the Bethesda Theatre's production of Altar Boyz. But if you're a fan of boy bands, don't mind a heavy dose of ecumenism -- especially when it's the Jewish boy who brings everyone together -- and can sit through an energetic, ear-blasting 90-minutes of soul-saving, pop music and choreography, then Altar Boyz, onstage through Nov. 2, might be just be your salvation -- so to speak.
If you're a cynic, suspicious of the radical right, uncomfortable with overt Christian preaching, then Altar Boyz isn't for you.
The cult hit, which ran for more than two years off Broadway, is now on a U.S. tour, and fans, young and middle-aged, straight and gay, are flocking to the show and signing up for the Altarholics fan club. In some cities, young girls and their moms have seen the show a dozen or more times, and counting.
My friend, Doug, the preacher's son, whistled, laughed and clapped along, giving it up for the Boyz in their grunge-glamorous bead-dazzled tight jeans and hoodies, hair product and bling. Like Doug, many found extravagant release in the opportunity to have fun with the often-serious accoutrements of Christian proselytizing and church-going.
A 90-minute paean to pop-star boy bands and Christian youth ministries, the show plays fast and hard with double entendres about drug use, homosexuality, premarital sex and any number of other teen and adult vices. With a story line as loose as a salsero's hips, it centers on the five-man band finishing its fictitious "Raise the Praise" world tour.
There's a silly soul-saving calculator -- an LCD screen called the "Sony Soul Sensor DX12" -- that counts how many true believers the crowd holds.
But first, we see how this preacher-worthy New-Kids-on-the-Block-ish band was born. The line between hegemonic praise and unadulterated parody gets crossed so many times that audience members can stand on either side, which explains the popularity of Altar Boyz: It's either filled with insider jokes on queers, musical theater, Sunday school and genuflecting real-life altar boys, or it's a hip, pop culture revival meeting.
Take your pick, but either way the audience hoots and giggles at the gay-boy character who never really outs himself; the high-strung druggie now addicted to Jesus, and the hypersensual, overly suggestive Juan with his rolling Rs and thrusting pelvis.
And because it's been decades since a successful Broadway or off-Broadway musical didn't have at least one Jewish character, here, too, a Jew plays the quintessential role of outsider. It turns out that the yid with the lid, Abraham (David R. Gordon), the smart, nerdy kid, brings the band together to sing and dance for the Lord.
In the snazzy intro number, all fog machines and rock 'n' roll lighting, "We Are the Altar Boyz," we meet the four "apostles" Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan (Jared Zirilli, Patrick Elliott, Travis Morin and Michael Busillo), and then there's Abraham. If it weren't obvious already (he's wearing a Superman T-shirt with the Hebrew letter shin and huge Hebrew bling, a Star of David around his neck), they sing and point: "He's Jewish."
Later, on walking into church, one of his friends asks, "Hey, are Jewish people even allowed in church?" Abraham replies: "I just saw one on the cross above the altar." Ba-dum-bum.
And so it goes.
As for the musical numbers, by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker, plenty are cringe-worthy, saccharine-flavored pop praises: "God put the rhythm in me so I could bust a move," "Jesus called me on my cell phone, no roaming charges were incurred" and the salsa-inflected "La Vida Eternal." But with a few sexy moves, a toe-tapping beat and fog and lighting effects, most audiences will clap in unison to anything these days.
The irony of Altar Boyz is that the Jew not only holds the group and the show together, but he also provides the moral. In "Everybody Fits," the Boyz sing about how it doesn't matter how different one might be -- nod to Abraham with his six-pointed genuflection -- "everybody fits into God's great family."
Funny, isn't it, how a Jewish boy takes center stage in Christian stories -- old and new. Sound familiar?
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Altar Boyz is onstage through Nov. 2 at the Bethesda Theatre. Tickets, $25-$75 -- a limited number of $25 front-row tickets are for sale for each performance one-hour prior to the show only at the box office -- are available by calling 301-657-7827 or at www.bethesdatheatre.com .
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