Altar Boyz: Lee Markham to play 'Luke'

Lee Markham is to join the cast of the Off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz on the 3 Apr 2009, playing the role of 'Luke,' which he assumes from Neil Haskell.

Haskell, who was featured on 'So You Think You Can Dance,' is leaving the production to join the company of the Broadway musical '9 to 5.' Austin Lesch will play the role until Markham begins.

Markham is joining the NY cast of Altar Boyz after playing 'Luke' in Media, PA and Glens Falls, NY for the Adirondack Theater Festival. Originally from Treasure Island, FL, he received a B.A. in Theater at USF. Other credits include 'playing Max' in the eastern tour of the Nickelodeon show 'Max and Ruby' as well as the off-Broadway production through Theaterworks USA. He was also in the NYMF show 'Angels' (Dasher) and the FL tour of 'Smokey Joe's Cafe' (Bass). Lee also performs in the improv troupe 'Eight is Never Enough' as well as doing stand-up comedy and voiceover work.

Altar Boyz, now in its fourth year, is currently booking through to 6 Sep 2009 at New World Stages / Stage 4, where it opened on the 1 Mar 2005, following previews from the 15 Feb.

Altar Boyz is a musical comedy about a struggling Christian boy-band riding the wave of America's latest fascination with religion. Armed with catchy melodies, freaky moves and product in their hair, the self-anointed apostles of pop (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan . . . and Abraham (He's Jewish) bring their soul-saving tour to New York City, with their heavenly hits like �Girl, You Make Me Wanna Wait� and �Jesus Called Me On My Cell Phone�.

Currently starring in the show are Neil Haskell (Luke), Michael Kadin Craig (Matthew), Mauricio Perez (Juan), Travis Nesbitt (Mark) and Ravi Roth (Abraham).

Conceived by Marc Kessler and Ken Davenport, Altar Boyz has a score by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker with book by Kevin Del Aguila.

The musical is directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, with set designs by Anna Louizos, lighting design by Natasha Katz, and sound design by Peter Hylenski. Lynne Shankel is the music director and Co-Orchestrator.

The show received mostly Good to luke-warm reviews from the popular press. Click here to read Polly Wittenberg's review and what the other critcs said about the musical.

Altar Boyz received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Off-Broadway and earned Christopher Gattelli the 2005 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreographer.