Mexodus Off-Broadway Reviews

Created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, and directed by David Mendizábal, Mexodus is an inventive, technically impressive spectacle, both loudly propulsive and low-key meditative.

The new theater season has its first must-see musical. It’s “Mexodus,” written and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, which had its New York City premiere Thursday at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre after a few regional productions. You’ll be entertained, but you might learn something, too.

Mexodus, directed by David Mendizábal, comes just as packed with history and intention as it does with good music and good fun. It may just be the most fun you have at a show all year. But what makes this musical so likely to stay with its audience is the creators' focus on intersectionality: what solidarity between oppressed groups meant in the past, what it means in the present, and what it will mean in the future.

More than that, Quijada and Robinson suddenly reveal themselves not only as singers and masters of their instruments but as adroit actors, further enhancing their purpose. Robinson probably has more acting challenges, but both, as directed by David Mendizábal and choreographed by Tony Thomas, imbue Mexodus with unmissable drama.

The music is entirely live-looped, meaning the show’s stars, Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, who also share credit for book, music & lyrics, create the music from scratch each night with the instruments scattered across Riw Rakkulchon’s industrial set. (Mikhail Fiksel is credited with looping systems architecture and sound design.) Before our eyes, we get to watch them create a song from the ground up—starting with an upright bass, then layering on top of that any number of instruments or practical sounds like stomping, clapping, or beat-boxing. It’s not only exciting to watch, it’s a theatrical high wire act that depends on the actors’ facility with the instruments and tech while still delivering a compelling story.

As guides through this history lesson, Quijada and Robinson are charming, musically dexterous and rap at the speed of light. (They would undoubtedly medal in the linguistic Olympics.) They also sing like sirens and expertly play the overflow of instruments scattered across Riw Rakkulchon’s quasi-barn set that also resembles a shipping container, a rickety trove of concealed treasures.