Christian rappers J Cray (Manuel Angel) and Heavy Flow (Lacy Smithmier) on the mic for JC.
Sex, God and rock ’n’ roll come together in an upcoming musical at Broom Street Theater penned by a UW-Madison alum.
Spread the Nudes follows the exploits of the Christian rock outfit Spread the News. The post-grunge foursome is set to open on the reunion tour of dc Talk, the 1990s multi-Grammy-winning Christian rock-rap group. But then, disaster strikes: The drummer sleeps with the pastor’s daughter and is kicked out of the band. The only replacement they can scrape up is — gasp! — Jewish.
The play, which runs Fridays and Saturdays from May 27 to June 11, takes jabs at band politics, right-wing fundamentalists and homophobes. “All the things that deserve to be made fun of,” says Chris Heloyda, writer and producer of Spread the Nudes, which debuted at Milwaukee’s Underground Collaborative in February 2015.
The scandalous take on a supposedly squeaky-clean subject is a fusion of Heloyda’s comedic and musical background. He played in the ska band I Voted for Kodos while attending law school at UW-Madison. Touring with the band provided ample real-life comedy experiences.
“When you’re sitting in a hot van for four to six hours with a broken A/C, there’s not a lot else to do but try and out-crass each other,” Heloyda says.
While at the UW, he performed standup and was a member of the sketch comedy group Stuart’s Law Revue. Years later, Heloyda still wanted to push the envelope. Inspired by the recent success of bawdy musical theater like Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, he sought to merge edgy content with good-hearted, relatable characters.
The actors in Spread the Nudes perform the music live. Lead singer Chresten (played by Holoyda) is hell-bent on reaching disenfranchised youth with a musical style comparable to Godsmack, Creed and Puddle of Mudd. Guitarist Dave (Landyn Heimerl) is a Stryper fan and shredhead, much to Chresten’s chagrin. Bassist Lance (Robby McGhee) has a crush on a man in the church choir. Jakob, the drummer (Brendan Daly), used to play in a lesbian klezmer band, but is hoping for better luck with Christian girls.
Spread the Nudes has some serious rock credibility. Co-director and choreographer Cindy Severt served as assistant choreographer for Prince’s Purple Rain. Broom Street artistic director Heather Renken is directing the production with Severt.
“Broom Street Theater curates its shows each season, so I consider myself lucky that they agreed to host the show,” says Heloyda, who lives in Milwaukee. “It’s a really neat organization. Generally, they focus on homegrown original shows being performed for the first time, but since this is a Madison premiere, they made an exception for us,” Heloyda says.
