REVIEW: Mexodus (Mosaic Theatre Company)

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: a cross-cultural coalition of Latino and Black artists create a hip-hop musical that combines unique instrumental stylings to tell the story of a forgotten era of United States history.

In the years since Hamilton dropped — nearly a decade, if you can believe it — there still hasn’t been anything like it. Lin-Manuel Miranda hasn’t released a new original stage composition, and his opus has certainly hit the age and reverence to be a permanent member of the Great American Songbook. No new major musicals have seemed to take direct inspiration from it, or even emulate it. Nine years after it shook up the zeitgeist, it stands alone.

But now we have a new contender: existing in spite of any Hamilton comparisons is Mexodus, the triumphantly original musical experience closing out Mosaic’s 23-24 season. Conceived and developed over American theatre’s Covid Era by mulidisciplinary artists Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, it premiered in Baltimore earlier this year before hopping south this month. The musical is a live-produced DIY effort that defies genre to tell the story of the lesser-known Underground Railroad that went to Mexico, instead of up north—something glaringly omitted from any textbook I’d ever read, even in a state as progressive as Maryland. As they put it so succinctly in its opener: “Did you know this shit? (We didn’t know this shit!)”

Book/Music

Mexodus is live-looped, meaning that while the songs are finished and played live like any other musical, in the spirit of the DIY movement the beats are recorded live by Brian and Nygel and then put on a loop for each song. By layering these bricks of sound, an inviting house of rhythm is built — one that is ever so slightly different night-to-night. The bass might be a little nastier on one number, or the pitch on a hand-clanked pan might be a little lower as the percussive element. The trills of a guitar could be a bit faster, the reverb on a keyboard a smidge tighter. It’s evocative of a concert, especially in a later number which utilizes the vox populi of the night’s audience as backing vocals. In a sense there’s the Ikea Effect at play: the psychological notion that things you participate in creating creates a deeper attachment to the object. It helps that the final products are downright infectious, brimming with enthusiastically illustrative bi-lingual cadences.

Alongside this excitable gimmick is the unexpectedly gripping plot: the duo play an amalgamation of two individuals involved in the creation of the Underground Railroad’s southern branch that crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. Robinson plays Henry, a slave on the run after murdering his captor, and Quijada is Carlos, a laborer working on a corn farm on the Mexican side of the border. Henry takes the stage first as he laments his ancestral journey into servitude, utilizing one-two rhythms, hums, claps, and stomps that harken back to the origins of Black music in America. Carlos’s music, naturally, takes greater inspiration from that of regional Mexican, with emphasis on strings, triplets, and an accordion. Individually, the songs are beautifully crafted and addictive, but as their stories intertwine so does their music. The resultant swirl of norteño, jazz, mariachi, rap, and so much more is simply mystifying. All this, plus its occaisional touches of humor, proves that the effortless creative powerhouse of Robinson and Quijada is a sight to behold. May we be witness to the start of a creative dynasty in the making. 10/10

Acting

The two dive far into the depths of these characters, based on a variety of facts about the people involved in this movement, with ravishing dramatic performance that stands toe-to-toe with the standout score. Robinson is magnetically effervescent as Henry and Quijada shines particularly as Carlos, who reminds the audience of the insidious shared histories of forced labor between here and Mexico, and further explores the idea of American aggression towards Black and Brown bodies that persist to this day. His grumpiness and moral demagoguery satisfyingly contrasts with the steadfast desperation of Henry, creating a sad tension in which both learn they share one enemy. This even carries over into how they play their instruments, how each emotion is rang through each filter and loop the duo create. The duopoly of vocal talents is wealthy and diverse, with soulful belts that complement the pattering of the rap. Great news: there’s a recording on SoundCloud (but seeing it is believing it). 10/10

Production

I haven’t been impressed with Mosaic’s recent sets, but they have shown a commitment to breaking that streak with Riw Rakkulchon’s playfully sonic set that blurs the definitions of timber and timbre. Strung all around the set are instruments and speakers, some in plain sight and some creatively hidden, that are pulled out of seemingly thin air. The musical potential is not limited to just instruments, either, as whole props and more analog elements of the stage are used as if they were farm tools to make digital adjustments—think a big, wooden wheel to adjust the pitch of a cajon loop that was made a few seconds prior. It’s such a clever use of the space from director David Mendizabal, which is further illuminated by the diverse luminance of Mextly Couzin’s lighting design, which combines dancing string lights, measured shading from the wings, and dramatic, warm backlights. It’s as much an event to see as it is to listen, creating a divine multisensory experience. 10/10

Viz

I’m a big fan of Mosaic’s colorful, bold marketing. It aligns so well with their artistic motif as a piece of visual candy. No doubt that they have delivered with their warm program art, involving sunny hues that paint the Rio Grande Valley and include the sun as the hole in a silhouetted guitar. It’s musical but references the idea of a long-trodden journey very well. 10/10

Verdict

Mexodus is an American musical experiment like no other, one that provides a rich historical context between two separately disenfranchised narratives via incredible songmaking and lucid performances, all in a welcoming space that leaves no trace of disappointment. 40/40