REVIEW: Altar Boyz, Greenwich Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The Altar Boyz. Photo: Claire Bilyard Look out One Direction the Altar Boyz are here! After touring the world saving souls, these five talented boys are winding up their tour at the Greenwich Theatre. Unlike the One Direction boys, who usually perform at the O2 just down the road, the Altar Boyz favour smaller, more intimate surroundings to work their magic and boy do they work it!

This is high octane entertainment, a 90 minute rollercoaster of silliness with heart, amazing talent and enough boy-band clichés to put Take That, Westlife and every other boy-band for that matter to shame.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham (The Altar Boyz) dish up some incredibly catchy and extremely funny pop tunes, that had the audience in stitches, all whilst exuding pop star charisma and out dancing some of the best bands out there.

Add an ex-factoresque announcer who in heavenly overtones instructs the boys to blend together in harmony "Hitherto shalt thou anoint thy hair with product and gird up thy loins in leather, Lest ye skeweth unto an older demographic -- which is detestable in mine eyes." and you get the idea that this is ultimately great fun.

Altar Boyz is a true ensemble effort with each of the boys given their moment to shine. Highlights include Matthew’s (Liam Doyle) doe eyed tribute to a female audience member asking her to understand his stand on abstinence, Juan’s (Faisal Khodabukus) Ricky Martinesque La Via Eternal, Luke (Jamie-Ray Hartshorne) who’s bouts of “exhaustion” cause havoc with the group even though they don’t seem to stop him busting some serious moves, Abraham – the Jewish lyric-writing ring-in (Alex Jordan-Mills), who finishes the show with the anthemic I Believe and Mark’s (Jonny Fines) shop-stopping Epiphany which brings down the house, show this talented team as real theatrical triple threats.

Director Steven Dexter, Choreographer Ewan Jones and Musical Director Mark Crossland have successfully captured boy-band magic with Altar Boyz. Look out Louis Walsh this team could give you serious competition in moulding the next big thing.

The Altar Boyz are only in London for a few short weeks and it would be a sin to miss them!

On a serious note, it’s sad that London does not yet possess a complex of venues like the Off-Broadway New World Stages, where shows like Altar Boyz can settle in for longer runs. We are the poorer for it.

Altar Boyz runs til October 18

Box Office 020 8858 7755

www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk