As boy-band spoofs go, 'Altar Boyz' needs no help from above

"Altar Boyz," a lighter-than-air sendup of Christian boy bands, is pretty much a one-joke show. But what it does with that joke is simply divine.

Lord knows (and apparently told the show's creators), there's plenty to parody in the world of boy bands; the hairstyles alone could inspire a show, to say nothing of the bubblehead songs and the risibly literal choreography. As for Christianity, songwriters from Tom Lehrer on down have had fun with the more arcane points of its rituals and dogma. Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect, indeed.

Put them together and what have you got? Comedic heaven.

Or, at least, a fluffy 90 minutes of heavenly hilarity. From the opening number, which has the Boyz harmonizing on poppy lyrics about persecution while their meticulously choreographed gestures freeze into a momentary pose of crucifixion, you know that this is not going to be a highly reverent show.

But you also know that it's a show even a churchgoer could love, because there just isn't a mean bone in its body. There's also, to be honest, not really a thought in its head, beyond having a good time riffing off the Good Book. "Altar Boyz" is no more a critique of Catholicism than "Nunsense" was; it's just a little hipper, with a bouncier beat.

It also has truly clever lyrics and parodic but still danceable tunes, both by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker. The Boyz -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Juan, plus Abraham, the Jewish one (don't ask) -- sing an ode to abstinence, a Latin tribute to "La Vida Eternal" (that would be Latin as in America, not Latin as in Mass), and a rapping recitation of biblical miracles that's a small miracle in itself.

There's just enough of a story to string it all together: We're to imagine ourselves at an actual concert, and we get a bit of backstory about the band. Between the lines, we also learn more than the Boyz know themselves about the ties that bind them. Let's just say that Mark shows Matthew a bit more than brotherly love.

There were fears, when the show morphed from its Off Broadway beginnings to the grander scale that a tour in larger houses requires, that it would lose some of its charm. But the music fills the Colonial without blasting it away, and Anna Louizos's spare set sets the pop-concert mood but doesn't dwarf the five singers onstage.

They are singers, too -- and terrifically hard-working dancers. It's at least as hard to dance and sing funny songs as straight ones; these guys really know their stuff. And they strut it, in 'N Sync-worthy costumes by Gail Brassard.

Some might object that saving souls, which is what the Boyz purport to do with their music, is no laughing matter. To such killjoys I can only say: I'll be praying for you.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.