Is satirizing Christianity through the lens of an 'N Sync-style boy band a gag that can remain funny throughout a whole 90 minute show?

Just about!

Credit the exuberance of the five stars who mmmbop and gyrate their way through Bethesda Theatre's production of Altar Boyz. The show, while hardly scandalous, is probably the theater's edgiest fare to date, but the fun that creators Marc Kessler and Ken Davenport poke at Catholicism is done rather gently, and the work's overall message is one of inclusiveness and friendship.

The show, which exists entirely within the realm of one of the pop group's concerts, sets the tone with the laugh-out-loud opener, "We Are The Altar Boyz". The group's mimicry of boy-band style choreography, taken up a notch and peppered with ceremonial Christian imagery, from genuflection to signs of the cross, is repeatedly amusing, whether the boys are ridin' the pony or doing riffs on the Robot. The amusement probably wouldn't last if the cast wasn't so committed to keeping the energy level high and never seeming too in on the joke. Particularly charismatic is the comically effeminate Patrick Elliot, who always seems to be an extra hip wiggle or eyebrow raise ahead of the rest of the group.

Altar Boyz' mockery of the NKOTB set is often funnier than its Jesus-gags, which can occasionally lean towards the predictable. The best is when the vocalists, particularly David Gordon as Abraham ("he's Jewish!"), perfectly imitate the genre's overuse of melisma and downright goofy stylistic mispronunciations (I laughed every time Gordon sang the word "family" during "Everybody Fits"). The show also gets across the sometimes incomprehensible power that Christian music has over its fans (though this point was made with more subtlety in Studio Theatre's recent This Beautiful City).

Perhaps intentionally, the slang used by the Altar Boyz feels dated and uncool, which would be funnier if phrases such as "da bomb" and plays on "fo shizzle" were used a bit more sparingly -- it's here where the show veers most dangerously into the realm of cheesy.

The cast, anchored by Jared Zirilli as the earnest pretty boy Matthew, does its finest to involve the audience in the show, with mixed results. Singing the ridiculous chastity anthem, "Something About You", to a middle-aged woman singled out in the audience works -- an extended gag involving reading audience "confessions" is less effective (basically because it sounds like the chosen secrets were planted, and the responses were canned). The show is best when it's being zany (in the aforementioned "Everybody Fits", lamb puppets are involved) -- when the plot turns serious, it starts to feel like we're back in Sunday School.

Altar Boyz runs through November at Bethesda Theater. Tickets are available online.