"This performance is an experiment. We would like to show that it is possible to present on stage a meaningful performance even within the confines of show business," said the 27-year-old Somogyi, who saw Altar Boyz in New York last year. The musical had its world premiere there in 2005.
Somogyi said the copyrights acquired for the play did not oblige him to present the musical in its original form in Budapest. Altar Boyz is a concert in the theatre and at the same time a theatre performance within a concert, he added.
"(The musical) tells the story of five alter boys, including a Jewish one, who try to help people within a religious community by involving everyone. They get into various adventures to set the world straight, while continually communicating with the audience," Somogyi said.
He said the production's excellent story and great music as well as the way it involves the audience can make Altar Boyz this year's extraordinary theatre event.
Somogyi debuted as a director with a musical based on Magda Szabó's novel Masquerade in 2004. Next year he plans to prepare the stage adaptation of Szabó's classic novel Abigail for the Budapest Spring Festival.
Altar Boyz will be performed in Budapest by Attila Dolhai, Zsolt Árpád Mészáros, Máté Miklós Kerényi, Dávid Szabó and Attila Serbán. The original musical was written by Kevin Del Aguila, based on an original idea by Marc Kessler and Ken Davenport. The Hungarian version has been prepared by Somogyi with director of the Operetta Theatre Gábor Miklós Kerényi. The lyrics have been translated into Hungarian by Péter Müller Sziámi and Anna Müller. The music and the lyrics were written by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker.
For more information visit http://www.operettszinhaz.hu/index.nof?o=0&nyelvid=2&mod=elo&time=2007&did=40&nyelvid=2&k1=1#d40
