Mainline Theatre Presents “Alex Cross and His Rise To Fame”

Last Friday I caught “Alex Cross and His Rise To Fame” at the Mainline Theatre on St. Laurent the play was directed and produced by a genius who goes by the name of Franco De Crescentis. This was my very first time watching a play at the Mainline Theatre of this nature, and it was this play in particular that sparked my interest in theatrics, causing  a happy spark and stir inside of me, and inspiring me to pursue more theatrical shows to cover for the blog, and for all of you wonderful readers out there!

In short, Franco De Crescentis plays the bartender character, and also narrates the story for audience members, taking us on a wonderfully theatrical journey into the life of a lonely guy named “Richard Dick” or as some like to refer to him as “Dick Dick” who spends most of his time at the bar getting tanked and feeling sorry for himself. His ultimate passions are to sing and play guitar, but he isn’t very good at it. He lacks in the charisma department and has low self esteem. Despite his shortcomings, Richard has big dreams in mind to one day become the most famous rock star in the world. One day, while slamming back beers at the local pub, he is introduced to Mr. Beelzebub, CEO of Beelzebub Talents, and his “Cruella Devil” looking female assistant, who come as “wolves in sheep’s skin” as some would say, and lure Richard Dick with women, booze and drugs into naively making a Faustian bargain involving a contract signed in blood. 

They even have him change his name to “Alex Cross” because they feel that it is more marketable than “Richard Dick” (They’re probably right)

At first it seemed like a dream come true, Alex Cross now had everything that he has ever dreamed of… adoration, tons of money, fans, beautiful women, and media exposure. At the height of his fame, it is clear to see that Alex Cross has now become a completely different personal altogether  participating in satanic rituals disguised as regular on stage performances and flashing demonic hand signals as instructed during photoshoots.

A deranged X-fan begins to catch on to the conspiracy and dedicates all of her time to exposing Alex Cross for exactly who and what he is– a worshipper of the Baphomet! Unfortunately, Alex is completely unaware of the agenda he is promoting and is being used as a puppet for the music industry’s undercover plan… to brainwash the masses into worshipping Satan.

As the deranged fan continues to delve deeper and deeper into the conspiracy in hopes of recovering some sort of solid proof, she finally finds a copy of Alex Cross’s original contract and sees that at the very bottom right hand corner his name signed in red ink (blood)

She invites people to come over to her house for a group meeting of some sorts and help devise a way to expose Alex for who he his. Unfortunately only one person shows up in a baseball cap and dark glasses and unbeknownst to her, he is Alex Cross in the flesh. She goes on to slander him, without realizing that he’s right next to her, and he begins to weep.

Suddenly he begins to see the bigger picture. He leaves the X -fan/conspirator’s house and goes on a mission to confront Mr. Beezlebub in search of truth about the nature of his contract and fame, but accidentally walks in on Beezlebub sacrificing an innocent baby. When Alex discovers the truth, he seeks refuge but quickly finds out that it is not only his contract that binds him, but he is now completely being manipulated by the music industry and can’t seem to find a way out.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I can assure you that it’s a happy one. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this play, and ironically enough I consider myself to be somewhat of a conspiracy theorist to one degree or another. I believe the power of repetition plays a huge role in our society and marketing in general. I’ve noticed that a lot of people readily dismissing these theories, but the facts don’t lie. If you see something enough it’s easy to accept it as the ‘norm’ but to what degree of an effect does this have on our subconscious minds? At the end of the day, everybody believes what they believe, but there is no doubt that the music industry has not only taken a really dark turn, but also, the mainstream music seems to be majorly lacking  in substance. Are these crappy pop tunes really the kind of music we want to hear, or is it just what we’re being forced to hear on a regular basis, and therefore through repetition we trick ourselves into thinking we enjoy it?  These are questions I’ve often contemplated, and after awhile I began to realize that I didn’t actually like mainstream music anymore at all. It was all unoriginal and recycled.

What are your thoughts? Comment below!

Until next time…