Spreading the word

Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham will be in town for the Manila leg of the Raise the Praise tour. A Christian boyband in concert--that does sound like a fun premise for a musical comedy. These singing and dancing sacristans call themselves the Altar Boyz. "The z gives it away," they say.

At the risk looking like a fangirl, I gave in to the temptation of remixing one of their greatest hits.

"The genius of the writing of the show is that it really allows you to cross all sorts of faith, religion, spiritual boundaries...There's nothing heavy-handed and preachy about it," director Chari Arespacochaga said during the preview. It's a throwback to the BSB-N Sync era, with universal messages of friendship, tolerance and acceptance.

Altarboyz is one of the two reasons I got a Rep season ticket year (the other being Hamlet). Since I saw a hilarous in-character interview of the original off-Broadway cast, I thought it would be a blast to stage it in a Catholic country like the Philippines. But then there's the danger that some people might take it seriously or take offense. You could have a hit in your hands if you market this to girls's schools (yes, they do tours) ...if you can convince the nuns to say amen. Let's call it the Kundirana effect.

More on the show after I watch it next weekend.

Altar Boyz
Onstage Greenbelt
All Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays of April

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I just realized what a Rep kid I am.My parents used to watch dress rehearsals at Insular Life and took me to see Annie at Rizal Theater when I was a toddler. Half a lifetime ago, I was one of Robbie Guevara's summer workshoppers. We were subscribers for several seasons until Rep had to leave the William J. Shaw Theater.

I didn't know which was worse: talking with a painfully sore throat or being such a ditz around fellow bloggers. Still, I was happy to meet Gibbs (salamat sa invite!), Lorna, Fritz, AJ, Karla, and Hogi. Hope to see you again soon.