Wind the clock back 20 years to the glory days of home move rentals with Cult Classic, an original high-concept musical dramedy by John Aquino and Sam Grey. Lex Bentley stars as Charlie, a cursing-adverse workaholic video shop owner who inherited the fading business from her deadbeat dad, and is now dodging collection calls from the IRS. Regular customers rely on her store, You Gotta See This Video & More, for their weekend copies of Shrek and Spider-Man 2, but a representative from Blockbuster (Bryan De Souza) wants to buy it out and put her employees — people-pleasing Westley (Nicholas Garcia) and surly cinephile Carlos (director Kid Santana) — out of work, inspiring them to found a new film-focused religion for tax avoidance purposes.
Cult Classic’s tone starts out as light satire but grows heavier as Charlie’s estranged sister Jess (Veronica Gonzalez) arrives bearing familial backstory, and Carlos transforms into a theological tyrant. Cartoonish commentary on parasocial obsessions and the over-commercialization of cinema builds into a climactic attempted human sacrifice, leading to a conveniently tidy resolution quicker than you can say “TUDUM.”
The synthesizer score is composed of about a half-dozen pleasant gospel-tinted pop pastiches that echo elements of Spring Awakening and The Greatest Showman, among other soundtracks. Following a scene-setting ensemble opening production number, there’s a long unmusical stretch before the next song, and the show is missing the 11th-hour finale you’d ordinarily expect in a standard musical structure. Backing tracks often overwhelmed the unamplified singers during the press preview, largely drowning out the lyrics. However, the cast should be given credit for giving gutsy performances, particularly Bentley for belting her “I want” song with determination despite the lack of microphone support.
As someone who collected Disney VHS clamshell cases and still purchases obsolete physical media, a show set in a vintage video shop should have been right up my aisle, but despite its promise, Cult Classic didn’t quite land on my personal list of favorite original Fringe musicals. With a few additional songs, more audible singers, and a better-developed dénouement, it has the potential to shift from the discount bin to the coveted New Releases endcap.
Cult Classic: A New Musical
Pink Venue, Lowndes Shakespeare Center
60 minutes; 18 & up
$15
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.