New musicals don’t get any more one-of-a-kind than Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s supremely inventive, supremely innovative, supremely elucidating and entertaining off-Broadway two-hander Mexodus, now dazzling Pasadena Playhouse audiences direct from its New York run.

 Not only have Quijada and Robinson written Mexodus’s fact-based book and its catchy songs, they live-loop each and every one of them right before our eyes while portraying Mexican farmer Carlos and American slave Henry, the latter of whom escapes from 1850s Texas across the Rio Grande, slavery-free Mexico offering a nearer-by option than riding the Underground Railroad up north.

Along the way, Quijada and Robinson layer live drum beats, bass lines, keyboard and guitar riffs, and vocal harmonies one atop the other until right before our eyes and ears they’ve created what amounts to a multi-instrument rock band as Johnny Moreno’s spectacular video and projection designs (both live and preset) visually enhance the whole shebang.

Not only that, but as all this is going on, we follow Henry’s journey from a life of slavery to a self-defense killing to an escape across the U.S.-Mexico border where he is given shelter, albeit reluctantly, by Mexican-American War vet-turned-farmer Carlos, though it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that much of Mexodus’s power will come from watching these two strangers go from wary adversaries to friendship-bonded comrades even as bounty hunters head south to come knocking on Carlos’s door.

Quijada and Robinson’s songs range from the R&B/hip-hop “Two Bodies” to the rhythmic raps of “Black and Brown” to the bluesy “King Cotton” to the Latin hip-hop beats of “Henry 2 Enrique” to the gospel-infused “Wade In The Water,” all of them in service to the tale of heroism and healing that Mexodus’s writer-performers have to tell.

Not only does the Louise Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning musical bring to light a little-known chapter in American history, it’s that rare theatrical opus that celebrates Black and Brown unity as Carlos and Henry discover how much they have in common and in so doing find themselves becoming the most unlikely of friends and allies.

Working in tandem with director David Mendizábal and choreographer Tony Thomas, Quijada and Robinson display astonishing musical and technical virtuosity while bringing to vivid life Carlos, Henry, and more than a few supporting characters to boot.

Not only have its two original stars made the trek from New York to Pasadena, so has the production’s off-Broadway design package, and a spectacular one it is thanks to the combined talents of Riw Rakkulchon (scenic design), Mendizábal (costumes), Mextly Couzin (lighting), Mikhail Fiksel (looping systems architecture and sound design), and the aforementioned Moreno, who take us from a recording studio to a railway boxcar to the safehouse where Carlos takes refuge as Quijada and Robinson don multiple character-defining costumes and the music they make surrounds the Pasadena Playhouse audience with what Phil Spector would aptly call a “wall of sound.”

Alan Mendez is music director. Hope Villanueva is production stage manager. Casting is by Claire Yenson, CSA. Trent Lawson and Alan Mendez understudy the two stars. Davidson & Choy Publicity are press representatives.

When Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson premiered Mexodus at the Baltimore Center Stage in 2024, they could hardly have predicted that it would have not one but two smash off-Broadway runs, let alone that the musical’s success would bring it three-thousand miles west to Pasadena, all within the space of two years.

SoCal audiences can count themselves lucky to get to experience this one-of-a-kind musical two-hander only months after it ended its second off-Broadway run. Get ready to be blown away by its brilliance.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Through August . Wednesdays through Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 2:00 and 7:30.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
July 12, 2026
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Brian Quijada, Los Angeles Theater Review, Nygel D. Robinson, Pasadena Playhouse