By Adam Cohen…
The Underground Railroad, hip-hop, looped musical offers sick beats to history (recent and past)
As a kid, Schoolhouse Rock! played between Saturday morning cartoons. These animated educational songs informed me about things like how bills become laws. Now as a middle-aged man, I’ve become educated about how loop songs are created and how the Underground Railroad also went south.
This route south, through Mexico, often gets little notice. Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson change that with their brilliant, loop two-man musical Mexodus, running off-Broadway at Audible Theater.
Quijada and Robinson begin by showing us how loops are created. They start with an instrument record it, and layer in another. Both play several instruments – piano, guitar, drums, upright bass, spoons – sing and weave a mesmerizing true story. Those musical phrases by Quijada and Robinson build each song layer, creating impressive, gripping compositions with moments of rap, rock, R&B, and spirituals.
Robinson portrays Henry, a man born in Kentucky and sold in Texas. The show set in 1851, finds Henry picking cotton and fleeing across the treacherous Rio Grande. Wanted, injured, and alone, he takes refuge on a farm run by Carlos (Quijada). Carlos strongly considers turning Henry in and claiming reward money. Instead he nurses Henry back to health and helping him disappear into Mexico while performing several compelling songs. Robinson and Quijada also weave in moments from their own youth to impress the racial complexity of the world and how they are unfortunately always at risk of racism.
Technically impressive thanks to the excellent work of sound designer Mikhail Fiksel. Riw Rakkulchon’s set allows easy reach to the many instruments while also giving ample room for Johnny Moreno’s projections from cannily positioned cameras which capture abject emotion from both performers. David Mendizábal direction is pert and perfect. He weaves a majestic spell of music, indelible performances and technical elements.
Mexodus brilliantly leaps past its historical context with rich, melodic, and infectious hip-hop-inflected songs. The performers are mesmerizing. “Liberation in this nation is still being confronted,” Robinson reminds us in song, “when Black and brown bodies continue being hunted.” The urgency of Mexodus rings long past the well-earned ovations.
Tickets and more information at https://mexodusmusical.com
Photos by Curtis Brown
