Altar Boyz: Michael Kaden Craig to play Matthew

Michael Kaden Craig is to join the cast of the Off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz on the 31 Mar 2008 playing the role of 'Matthew,' which he assumes from Chad Doreck.

Craig's has played the role of Matthew in productions of the musical at Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park and St. Louis Rep. His New York City credits include 'Only Children' (Alistair Richards) at Lincoln Center Directors Lab, 'Bound for Broadway' opposite Jerry Dixon and Donna Vivino and 'Things To Ruin: The Songs Of Joe Iconis' at Joe's Pub. Craig was a contestant in the second season of 'American Idol.'

Altar Boyz is currently booking through to 31 Aug 2008 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 Jesse JP Johnson (Luke), Chad Doreck (Matthew), Jay Garcia (Juan), Ryan J Ratliff (Mark) and Ryan Strand (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 notices 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.