A part that he already knows

If you're going to make a living as an actor, you often have to hold your nose to pay the rent. But John Arthur Greene has the best of both worlds. Greene, who has performed with Raleigh-based N.C. Theatre, just scored a part in the touring version of "Altar Boyz," the off-Broadway hit about a Backstreet Boys-style boy band. And it's a style of music he loves.

"When I was a kid, I was a complete boy-band kid," says Greene, an Enloe High School alumnus who turns 18 this month. "'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, I knew every dance to all their stuff. I loved moving with the song. Then I became a total rock guy after I did 'Jekyll & Hyde' with Sebastian Bach. And now I've been going back to how much I love hip-hop and break-dancing and that style of pop music. This is what I do. So it's music theater, but my kind of music theater."

"Altar Boyz" is a wicked parody of the late-'90s/early-'00s boy-band era, featuring a quintet with a peculiar gimmick: They're born-again Christians (except for Abraham, a confused young Jewish man) singing for the Lord. Period pop archetypes fill out the titular group, including a charismatic front man, a Ricky Martin-esque Latino crooner and a flamboyant drama queen with a crush on the lead singer.

Greene plays Luke, a slow-witted faux-rapper along the lines of Donnie Wahlberg (who pioneered the stereotypical boy-band bad boy with New Kids on the Block in the late 1980s). Wearing a sports jersey and backward baseball cap, Luke throws down cheesy urban slang and misconstrues the point at almost every opportunity. In one memorable interlude, he misinterprets the word "agnostic" as having an eating disorder.

"I think Luke is the best role," Greene says. "He's got so much energy, and everybody remembers him."

Since opening in New York last year, "Altar Boyz" has played to rave reviews and spawned a rabid following of "Altarholics" who lurk in the chat forum on the www.altarboyz.com Web site and see the show scores of times. The touring version opens in October in Chicago, followed by a 30-week run across the country. There's not a Raleigh booking yet, but tentative dates are on hold for November 2007.