Tours de Force

When a Jewish guy joins "Altar Boyz" goys, does he learn to turn the other chic?

He does if he's a member of the hit off-Broadway show now rockin' and roiling the local theater scene at the Merriam Theater.

The gospel according to Abraham (Nick Blaemire, second from right), one of the "Altar Boyz"

Let's twist like we did last summer? In a twist on boy bands, Nick Blaemire is a one-man band of unbottled energy, who keeps his religion and kipah in tact as Abraham, the Jewish member of a motley mix of Altar Boyz II Mensch that praises the lord while raining holy hell on the music scene.

And just who is this sacrificial lamb of an Abraham now bouncing about the stage in an "Altar" state of consciousness? "He's on Cloud 9," says Blaemire.

Check your wings at the bimah; this Christian soldier of song is Jewish himself albeit he claims his was more of a secular upbringing that didn't include a Bar Mitzvah. But since touring with the "Boyz" in the band -- not to be confused with another breakout play of the '60s -- Blaemire is blogging onto his inner Jew and "Altar" ego.

Can this D.C. native with a diverse theatrical background be backup for a Jewish band? Better yet, is there a synagogue choir out there to corral his talent?

"I would hope so," he says.

Religious Roadies?
For now, he voices his support of the show -- which has acolytes aplenty, online and off -- known as Altarholics, a choreographed 12-step program of passionate fans who rock with their hero's every role. (Which makes fans of the Jewish member, of course, known as alter-kackers.)

Part of the musical's appeal is its appalling lack of political correctness. "It's an equal-opportunity offender," says Blaemire blissfully. "It doesn't in any way make fun of religion, though; it's more a sendup of religious and boy bands."

Send up the clowns? It also gets its laughs from the circus that is "young people's fascination with celebrities."

It's American idle time on stage as such songs as "Everybody Fits" is a perfect fit for a Jewish boy in a Christian rock band with catholic appeal.

"Creatively," says Blaemire, "the show pays homage to the stupidity of our culture."

Bidding shalom to a shallow society? In a way. But Blaemire wouldn't mind deepening his own experience. Lord, would he ever!

"Maybe one day, I'll get that Bar Mitzvah I never had."

In the meantime, he's living life in five-part harmony in sync with his newfound status. Not bad for a first gig just out of college. Maybe, after this tour ends, he could find another role as part of a second cast for "Jersey Boys" on Broadway?

"I'd have no problem being in another show that ends in 'Boys,' " quips the nice Jewish boy of being Broadway -- and maybe bimah -- bound.

How much of a miracle does it take to make it in show business? Well, some actors can walk on water if the part calls for it.

It's a night at the "Opera" for Christine (Marni Raab) and Raoul (Michael Gillis).

Which leads to Marni Raab.

Raab, whose soaring soprano lifts Christine right out of the water in "The Phantom of the Opera," now at the Forrest Theatre, has had a five-year run with the touring production, on and off. But it was a walk -- not the run -- that she can laugh about these days.

There was the time near the beginning of her stint that the gondola in which she and the Phantom famously travel through his well-water of a cellar plumbing the depths of their relationship came to a halt, and the magical mystery tour took on water.

French drain needed for the Paris Opera House? The gondola stopped. But the show must go on!

So, she recalls, she got out and walked.

Who knew that the music of the night would be "Splish/Splash"?

But Raab has made quite a splash in the role, as the operatic Christine caught in the crosshairs of Raoul the regal and Phantom the phantasmagorical, whose haunting of the Paris Opera House has been upstaged only by his New York and touring haunts over the years, which have now made Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical the longest running in Broadway history.

Raab's own history with the musical has been a feeling of floating, falling, sweet intoxication that lasts to this day. "A great job," is how she describes it.

She's done it enough to fill a chandelier with Crystal champagne. After all, as toast-of-the-town Christine, Raab knows she's taking part in a Cinderella story -- albeit one in which every night's a masked ball for her disfigured and dangerous suitor. "It's a fairy tale," says Raab. "A dark fairy tale."

Some light on her own story: "My parents took me as a kid to see 'Phantom' on Broadway a year after it opened," says this native of Woodcliff Lake, N.J. She looked at the costumes, saw the staging, heard the music, and then came out with a line not from "Phantom" but more from "A Chorus Line."

"I thought, 'I'd like to do that.' "

The Oberlin Conservatory grad need not conserve her feelings for the Lloyd Webber score, which she considers "beloved." With extensive credits in opera and operetta, as well as musicals such as "Carousel," Raab reaches for the gold ring and likes its untarnished touch.

Torn between two lovers ... what's a nice Jewish woman like Raab rotating between Raoul and the masked man of opera? Because, she'll be the first to tell you, the script calls for it.

One thing you won't find in the libretto is rumor of Phantom actually seeking solace in synagogue from his hideous past. Phantom ... Jewish?

"Well," says the singer, tongue so deeply in cheek one hopes it won't interfere with her vibrato, "it wouldn't surprise me. He is so erudite, after all."

Smart comeback, but then Raab has been coming up a winner for a number of years. In her offstage life, she owes much thanks to her own angels of music, her parents, "always supportive of me."

In the give-and-take of theater, rare is the performer who puts so much emphasis on the former. But Raab is one who knows that tzedakah plays a part, too, long after the footlights fade.

"On hiatus, I take part in Book Pals," she says of a New York literacy program, in which "I read to schoolchildren."

A read of her talent and timelines suggests a young actress ready to plunge into other projects. "I'd like to originate a role in a new show next," she says.

Who's going to stop her?

Hell, she can already walk on water.