These 'Boyz' Win Hearts (and Souls)

Sad that the boys of N'Sync (well, some of them) have gone on to bigger and better things? Or are you unmoved by the New Kids on the Block reunion tour? Either way, there's a new group coming to town that could be the answer to your prayers.

"Altar Boyz," the award-winning off-Broadway musical satire about a struggling, (mostly) Christian boy band takes good-natured pokes at elements of mainstream religion and '90s pop culture, opens Wednesday at Bethesda Theatre.

"Religious people go to see this show and love it. However, it treads the line between reverence and irony so wonderfully that nobody's going to be upset by the show," says Ray Cullom, the show's executive producer. "And yet you can enjoy it if you know nothing about religion, if you're anti-religion, if you're agnostic [or] if you're an atheist."

Stafford Arima and Christopher Gattelli, the show's original director and choreographer, reprise their roles in the traveling production, giving local audiences a chance to see the work of the creative team whose show won the 2004-05 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical.

Like any boy band of the past decade, each member of the group has a specific role, but despite their rep as a Christian boy band, there's more to the Altar Boyz than meets the eye: There's Matthew (Jared Zirilli), the innocent one; Mark (Herndon native Patrick Elliott), the sweet, sensitive one; Luke (Travis Morin), the party animal; Juan (Michael Busillo), the romantic; and Abraham (David R. Gordon), the . . . Jew?

"I think it adds a lot to the show," Elliott says of the incongruous Jewish band member, "and it makes the audience think, 'How is this possible in this Christian-based group?' But it's fun."

The group's biggest hits lead the audience down a righteous path before landing the ironic punch, turning religious boilerplate into highly personalized, liberal interpretations of mankind's relationship with God.

"Suddenly I felt a presence/I got a second chance," Elliot's Mark sings in "The Calling," drawing toward that seemingly inevitable "Hallelujah!" moment of redemption. "There was this vibrating feeling/On the belt-loop of my pants," he continues. "Jesus paged me on my beeper/He called from Heaven up above."

Throughout the performance, which brings the audience to the final night of the Boyz' "Raise the Praise" tour, the band consults the Sony Soul Saver DX 12, a device used to measure the number of souls in the audience in need of saving. The numbers fluctuate throughout the show, much to the group's chagrin. Ultimately, though, the show's message is less about actual salvation or (formerly) popular culture than it is about the personal redemption of the five band members.

"These five boys come into the evening to save everybody's soul, and it turns out the souls they need to save are their own," Cullom says. "It is a straight-out musical comedy. If you like those, you're going to love this show."

Altar Boyz Bethesda Theatre, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. 301-657-7827.http://www.bethesdatheatre.com. Through Nov. 2. $25-75.