LWT’s ‘Boyz’ Should Have Them Screaming for More

By Donna Doherty, New Haven Register, Conn.

Jul. 6–NEW HAVEN — These altar boys, or boyz, if you will, worship in the cathedral of rock, and while it’s generically a play, one will think that ‘N Sync has landed on the Long Wharf Theatre Mainstage as “Altar Boyz,” opens its nearly 10-week run Tuesday through Sept. 13 there.

And that’s exactly what producer Ken Davenport wants audiences to think and feel.

The 90-minute, high-energy musical comedy show takes the form of a real-time concert with no fourth wall. The audience is the concert audience. Audiences will hear topical references to the news in the banter and local references: “Hey, are you going to be at Pepe’s after the concert?”

“It feels like a miniconcert except it has a great story to it,” said Davenport, who runs Davenport Theatrical Enterprises in New York.

He came up with the idea for “Altar Boyz” when he and Marc Kessler, an actor who’d worked in Davenport’s “Forever Plaid,” sat down in 2001 to kick around ideas for a new show. The 35-year-old producer, recently named one of Crain’s New York Business’ 40 at 40 success stories, knows talent. He has three successful shows running off-Broadway at the same time (“The Awesome 80s Prom,”"Altar Boyz” and “My First Time”), all of which have recouped their investment, grossing $30 million worldwide. “Boyz” is the longest-running off-Broadway musical to open in the last 10 years.

But it’s obvious to Davenport why the show, which he says was his most difficult to cast, has become a phenomenon. “First of all, I’d put them up against any boy band. They sing better, they dance better, there’s no tracking or lip synching, and they do it eight times a week. You can’t help but fall in love, because it’s constructed so beautifully,” he said.

The Sturbridge, Mass.-born Davenport and Kessler first found a winning formula with the tight, fourpart harmony of the four guys in “Forever Plaid.”"We starting kicking around the same idea that could capture the idea in a modern way,” he said.

They came up with a Catholic boy band singing and dancing boy-band style, which would certainly lend itself to some obvious niche jokes.

Davenport yawned, until Kessler said, wait, there’s more. “‘Their names are Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan,’ he said. But wait, there’s one more. Abraham, the Jewish kid.’ That’s when I knew we had a hit,” said Davenport, who likens it to “a classic rock ‘n’ roll story, not unlike ‘Jersey Boys’ that you’ve seen and loved.”

The idea evolved into a story about a boy band of five from Ohio who wow the bingo halls with their Christian songs, but who yearn to crack the big time, the show being the last night of their “Raise the Praise” concert tour.

Davenport brought in another partner, Robin Goodman, and they produced it for the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it was an instant hit. It moved the next year to off-Broadway’s Dodger Stages, winning the 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for best off-Broadway musical and the Broadway.com audience favorite award for long-running off-Broadway musical for the last two years. It’s been produced internationally in Asia, with more productions planned for South America, Australia and Europe. This is the first stop on the tour which Davenport licensed to Winwood Theatricals.

The production will be directed by Tye Banks, based on original direction by Stafford Arima. Lou Castro is doing the choreography, based on Christopher Gattelli’s original choreography.

“I always knew the show would have a fanatical type of following, but I’m still amazed at how many people not only fall in love with the show and the boys, but come again and again. We’ve created a boy band, and we create new fans any time they perform,” said Davenport.

“Their mission why they’re there is to save the souls of all the people across the country through sweet pop music. There’s a ‘soul sensor,’ a little bit of technology that tells how many sinners are in the audience, and they try to get that number down through the show,” said Davenport with a laugh, hastening to add that, “It’s not a reli

gious musical in any way. It’s about five friends and the journey they take. It’s not sacrilegious, not blasphemous, not preachy. It’s like ‘Nunsense,’ said the raised-Catholic-butnever-an-altar-boy producer.

Like most boy bands, the guys fit some niches: Matthew (Philip Drennen) is the hunky lead, Mark (Dan Scott), the sensitive one, bad-boy Luke (Anton Fero), is said to have an interest in communion wine, Juan (Andres Quintero), the womanizing sexy one, and Abraham (Tim Dolan), who has few stereotypes in boy-band world at least they we know of. If history repeats itself, the New Haven cast might find itself caught up in the “altarholics” phenom enon. The show has a life of its own off stage, primarily on the Internet, where fans can join chat rooms at altarholics.com, buy merchandise ranging from mugs to caps, posters and computer wallpaper of the “boyz,” subscribe to a newsletter and even a video game.

Davenport follows a simple formula for his success: “I look for something that would appeal to me. That’s really what it is. So far I’ve been lucky that my tastes have lined up with the public. And I look for things that are really, really fun. Shows like ‘August: Osage County’ are brilliant, but the shows I’ve produced so far are a lot of fun — high energy — where you can’t help but leave with a huge smile on your face. That’s one of my favorite things to watch– audiences coming out of the theater with that smile.”

Now that he’s conquered off-Broadway, Davenport next turns to the Great White Way, where, after a six-year attempt to get the rights, he will develop the Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour movie “Somewhere in Time,” into a Broadway musical.

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