To paraphrase Aaliyah: forged measurement is nothing however a quantity. Within the theater enterprise, nobody precisely equates the variety of headshots on a Playbill web page with the last word success {that a} stage present gives. Nonetheless, a query could come up: How many individuals can you will have in a musical and nonetheless generate as many kilowatt hours of power as a full ensemble manufacturing?
This isn’t a theoretical query. One reply comes forcefully with the musical presently enjoying on the Pasadena Playhouse, “Mexodus,” a two-person recreation that may really feel like a 20-a-side recreation whenever you observe the noisy circulate and overlook to do the mathematics. The present has Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson as each writers and stars, and these are two guys who ought to have the ability to write their very own tickets for some time to return, on this foundation (asterisk: a minimum of to the extent that anybody in theater can), as actors and/or songwriters. Hell, if any of them determined to go actually minimalist after this and do a one-man present, I might be among the many first in line.
However in “Mexodus,” it takes two to tango or collaborate on a mixture of musical types, with the complementary flavors of hip-hop and conventional Tex-Mex balladry on the high of the listing. It is very very like an offshoot of “Hamilton,” in that it is a interval piece set a century nicely earlier than our personal with a substantial quantity of rap at first. It is an anachronism that will please you and even exhilarate you, though you hope it may not. entirety of the present takes place on this model. After all, this isn’t the case. A part of what offers “Mexodus” such a lift is the way in which Quijada and Robinson reveal themselves to be specialists as writers and singers in a stunning variety of genres that broaden all through the present in a type of fantastically inverse proportion to the variety of precise gamers on stage.
Two issues to know proper off the bat: First, “Mexodus” is an effective time within the theater. And secondly, it is a story of slavery. Whereas these two key elements appear to cancel one another out, you will not be the primary to surprise how a narrative from America’s biggest disgrace, set earlier than emancipation, may be reconciled with feel-good leisure. There is a easy reply to that: Many of the motion takes place south of the border, after slave Henry (Robinson) escapes to Mexico, the place he finds a involved benefactor in rancher Carlos (Quijada). The horrors of what Henry left behind – and to which he may simply return – are hardly ignored. However in the end, it is a story concerning the typically hesitant, typically shut relationship between black and brown folks… ostensibly within the 1860s, however by historic extension within the 2020s as nicely.
The query arises: Can Latinos and blacks kind a extra good union as they each deal, in various levels of inevitability, with white America? Exploring the approaching collectively of two marginalized (to say the least) North American cultures, “Mexodus” lastly lands in a spot of not solely cautious optimism, but in addition a great cause to throw a musical theater get together.
Earlier than the narrative begins in earnest, the present opens with a good bit of fourth-wall breaking, as Quijada and Robinson greet the home and clarify the principles of how all of the music can be created over the intermission-free hour and a half that follows. A full vocal and instrumental sound can be created through a loop, which will not require a lot clarification for anybody conversant in, say, Ed Sheeran’s reside performances. (Ariana Grande even has a looping train on her present tour.) For a much less pop-savvy theater crowd who would possibly want extra backstory on the wager, this includes Robinson and/or Quijada singing a background half, or enjoying a drum beat or acoustic guitar riff, then layering these tracks on high of one another, with using a turntable, pedal, knob, or off-stage assistant. There’s an superior magical impact that occurs when one or two males are capable of shortly rework themselves right into a pit band or an off-Broadway choir. However to the duo’s credit score, there’s a minimum of as a lot kismet happening after they do not play with these results in any respect however as an alternative knock us out with, say, an sudden Spanish guitar duet. There’s in all probability a model of this present that these two may make with none loop expertise; it might be attention-grabbing to see and listen to them attempt to make a “Mexodus Unplugged”. However nobody within the viewers is more likely to miss his skill to provide full sound and a heavy pulse the second a disco ball lights up stage proper.
“Mexodus” needs to be a historical past lesson, with out turning into too pedantic. queer. Of their narrator mode, Quijada and Robinson supply a statistic that an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 slaves discovered their option to freedom on a lesser-known Underground Railroad that headed south relatively than north. As soon as the story will get going, they do not leap in with too many further info. However every of the 2 protagonists enjoys a type of downtime within the motion throughout which they recount what seems to be an truly autobiographical reminiscence of an interplay earlier of their lives with the “different”—not the white different, however with blacks, in Quijada’s case, and Latinos, in Robinson’s. It is easy to think about a much less delicate director than David Mendizábal attempting to persuade the writer-actors that the present would not want these two aberrant moments. However these anecdotes function good nice notes by reminding the viewers that the comparatively comfortable consequence of the fictional, historic story just isn’t meant to recommend that black and brown populations have precisely been in good alignment because the mid-1860s. Robinson and Quijada are such an ideal dream workforce that you simply need to consider that everybody they painting in actual life is as likable as their characters turn into. These reflective and private components assist floor the sequence within the inevitable realization that issues are tense in all places…once more.
However you come to “Mexodus” to rise, to not fall again to earth. It is a present the place melanin points meet melatonin, and if that seems like a shotgun marriage, you have not seen how simply Quijada and Robinson’s writing and efficiency types mesh collectively right here.
Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson in “Mexodus” on the Pasadena Playhouse
Thomas Mundell
It could assist that Los Angeles presents this present as recent from the warmth and humidity of New York as theater productions come. Quijada and Robinson first carried out it in a twice-extended run at New York’s Minetta Lane Theater in 2025, then shortly revived it for a further engagement on the Daryl Roth Theater that concluded on June 14 – with New York sufficiently delighted to award the present 4 Lucille Lortel Awards, 4 Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, Off Broadway Alliance Award and one Drama League Award. In any case that, they barely had time to make a cross-country flight earlier than choosing up their belongings in Pasadena, whose Playhouse barely had time to open its well-known revival of “Brigadoon” in time to make method for this two-man prepper. In different phrases, it is like Pasadena simply received a giant cargo of adrenaline.
And virtually regardless of the deserves of the sequence itself (however not fairly), it is value catching, even in the event you’re merely a fan of hungry, gifted actors who go above and past to create work – very prime quality work – for themselves. Now listed here are two guys who know the way to construct, if not a literal Underground Railroad, a rattling funicular.
“Mexodus” continues on the Pasadena Playhouse by August 2. Ticket info is accessible at PasadenaPlayhouse.org.