Geoff Stevens never dreamed that, three years after playing an Altar Boy, he'd be called back for a third remount of the Arts Club Theatre musical comedy.
It was back in the winter of 2009 when the Gleneagle secondary graduate portrayed Abraham in Altar Boyz that toured the west coast, including a stop at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre. That summer, it also ran on the Granville Island Stage to rave reviews, with a month hold-over.
Now, the Coquitlam native is back in the show but not in his old set-up as the Christian boy band's songwriter who happens to be Jewish; rather, Stevens is Mark, "the sensitive one."
The character switch came at the request of Arts Club Theatre director Bill Millerd, who asked Stevens to change parts after the actor scheduled to be Mark dropped out for personal reasons.
"I was in Paris when I got an email two weeks before I was to fly out [to Vancouver]," Stevens remembered. "The director, musical director and choreographer said they had full faith in me to do Mark.
"I was so excited just to come back and to be working in Vancouver, especially for the summer.... It added a whole new challenge to learn new material, which is my favourite part about joining a new play."
Also reprising their roles - but portraying their 2009 characters - are Jeremy Crittenden (as the band leader, Matthew) and Jak Barradell (as the bad boy, Luke).
Through he liked playing Abraham, Stevens said Mark "is a really fun vocal role. All of his songs are really high and diva-ish so that's super fun to bite my teeth into."
The musical spoof, which opens tomorrow (Thursday) and runs until Sept. 1 at the Revue Stage on Granville Island, originally debuted in New York Off-Broadway in 2004 and features small-town heartthrobs Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham in a fictitious boy band.
Stevens said he's kept busy since the second Altar Boyz closed in Vancouver, working primarily in and around Toronto, where he calls home.
He was a member of a band called The Stagehands, which wrote and produced The Silent City for the Toronto Fringe Festival 2010 (and was named a Best of the Fringe). The band recorded a CD that year but disbanded afterwards. He also had a recurring role in the HBO/Cinemax production Lingerie and appeared in Seven Sins: On Greed for Bravofact.
Stevens picked Toronto as his base "because of all of the festivals like Shaw and Stratford," he said. "There are a lot more opportunities."
As for after the 2012 Altar Boyz run, Stevens said he hasn't bought a ticket home, hoping they'll be another hold-over as in 2009. "I'm open to working out west but, if nothing happens, then I'll go back and see what's up.
"That's an actor's life for you."
