A pop concert by a Christian boy band may sound unpromising as a play but, Altar Boyz was one of the longest running off-Broadway shows.
A satire on boy bands and pop culture in the form of a live concert - the last in the struggling band's ''Raise the Praise'' world tour, it is sophisticatedly put together, witty and funny, says director Shane Anthony. The New Zealand premiere opens at the Fortune Theatre on Saturday.
''It's a story told in a really different way, about faith and friendship and also finding humour, and tapping into archetypes we all acknowledge in pop culture,'' he says.
''It's a lot of fun, it's not about unpacking a complex psychological plot line - the humour is in the music, in the dancing, in the staging. It's about having fun - poking fun at not just boy bands but pop culture as well as what 14,15 and 16-year-olds do.''
From a small town in Ohio, the Altar Boyz have been together since they were teenagers. There's the charismatic lead singer Matthew, the sensitive, effeminate Mark, tough guy Luke, Juan the Latino lover and Abraham, who is Jewish but ''hey let's go with it - they don't seek to explain it away. That's part of the comedy, part of the charm'', Anthony says.
''For me what has been really interesting on the floor working with the actors over the past few weeks, is the tension between the private space of the boys on stage and the public space, which is them performing for the audience, and the little things that leak out throughout that final concert.''
The band is to disperse and it turns out that all except one have been signed for solo careers but they each think they are the only one signed to a solo career. The boys performed a few numbers in the Octagon recently and afterwards were mobbed by a group of fans wanting signed posters. Hadley Taylor, a local actor already has followers requesting memorabilia from his performances, according to marketing manager Larissa Dyke.
Taylor has been acting at the Fortune, mainly in children's plays, since he ''accidentally'' auditioned for Jungle Book in 2002 when he was 10.
''To meet on the first day was quite bizarre,'' he says.
''Not only meeting a cast all of strangers, as none of us had worked with any of the others before, but essentially we're a boy band who hang out together all the time. It's a different experience from what I've done before.''
Casting was a challenge, according to Lara Macgregor, the Fortune's artistic director.
''They had to be about the same age, feasibly all in their early 20s, and singers and dancers, as well as actors and they each have to have distinct characteristics.
''Mark is gay but it's a sort of unsaid thing. It's glaringly obvious in the show but no one's supposed to allude to it. There's a song he sings where you think he's going to come out that he's gay, but it's the total opposite,'' she says.
Unlike the theatre's musical production a couple of years ago Avenue Q, also directed by Anthony, which had some ratings, Altar Boyz is fun for all the family.
''Some of the harmonies in the songs are just beautiful and it's great to see five guys on stage being so athletic,'' he says.
See it
Altar Boyz, by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker with book by Kevin Del Aguila, opens at the Fortune Theatre on Saturday. It is directed by Shane Anthony, is choreographed by Mariana Dogum with Jason Te Mete as musical director and features Will Barling, Guy Langford, Nick Purdie, David Sutherland, Hadley Taylor and a live four-piece band.
