Review: 'Altar Boyz' lampoons with grace

Here's a show with the spiritual uplift of a revival meeting and none of the damning guilt.

"Altar Boyz" brims with affection for the icons it lampoons, reminding us how swiftly this glitzy culture moves. Boy bands were sizzling currency when the show hit in 2004. Now, we get weepy with nostalgia for the smooth harmonies 'N Sync made back in -- oh, gosh, 2002, 2003? I forget now.

Chanhassen's Fireside is done up like a mini-arena rock stage -- metal scaffolding and platforms surrounding Kyle Clausen's sharp band -- as the boys juke on stage and lay down their back stories.

Ben Bakken frames ice-blue eyes with a shock of blond hair and a shattering white grin. As Matthew, he has writhed his way to the top with charisma, well-toned pipes and squeaky clean morals. In a paean to virginity, Matthew finds a lucky fan and croons about a love so pure that "You make me want to wait."

Mazel tov to Brian Winter, the Jewish Abraham who puzzles over how he got into a Christian boy band. That's part of the wispy -- but heartwarming -- inclusive message in "Altar Boyz." When Juan (Eric Sumangil channeling a young Ricardo Montalban) finds that his birth parents have died, the boys buck him up with love. And when his demons bubble up and threaten to bust through Luke's skin, actor Matt LaFontaine looks to his mates for support.

Thin and limber as a rubber band, Brian Skellenger gets the plum role of Mark, a guy light in his loafers and dreaming of being the next Clay Aiken. His song, "Epiphany," is a sly piece of genius as Mark comes out and admits that he is, as we might have guessed, a Catholic. Mind you, he was born that way; it wasn't a choice. Skellenger all night long puts a spritz of froth on this honeyed confection.

Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker lade their harmonies with cheeky lyrics: "Jesus caught me on my cell phone/no roaming charges." A slapping rap digs the miracles of the Cana wedding and walking on water.

Director Michael Brindisi takes this just seriously enough to let us know he gets the joke, and Tam Kangas' choreography has limbs pumping and torsos thumping.

So posse up and party down, old school. Isn't that how the kids put it? "Altar Boyz" won't save your soul, but it will lighten your load.

Word.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299