Altar Boyz | Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place
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Altar Boyz, now playing at Drury Lane Water Tower Place, provides a refreshing alternative to this divisiveness and discord. The show takes the form of a concert, a premise also employed by Forever Plaid (about a doo-wop group) and Nunsense (about stagestruck convent sisters). But underneath the witty song parodies, slangy dialogue, and comically sexy dances, Altar Boyz offers an intricately constructed narrative about five young friends whose emotional and moral journeys bring them to a personal and professional crossroads. Irreverent but never mean-spirited, this sweet, smart show preaches inclusion, brotherly love, and spiritual and ethical self-exploration while satirizing intolerance and holier-than-thou hypocrisy. It also cleverly tweaks stereotypes about Catholics, Jews, gays, Latinos, and hip-hop culture, finding the humor in these images even as it challenges them.
Matthew seems the embodiment of wholesome, confident establishment Christianity. He’s the group’s front man, composer, and guardian of its image, delicately steering his comrades clear of inappropriate language, like “evolution.” But he has a dark secret that calls his moral leadership into question and makes him an outsider. Mark, the high tenor and choreographer, is the “sensitive one”–think Lance Bass, who proclaimed his homosexuality in a 2006 People cover story. But though Mark shares Bass’s fascination with space travel, he’s decidedly not ready to come out–even to himself. Like lisping Rooney on the Disney Channel’s The Doodlebops, Mark is innocently effeminate. He has a crush on Matthew (who once saved him from a beating by “Episcopalian thugs”) but sublimates it in dramatic religiosity, revealed in his showstopper “Epiphany.”
Through 11/25: Tue 7:30 PM, Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 5 PM, Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut, 312-642-2000, $45-$75.
