‘Mexodus’ Review: The Underground Railroad Runs South to Mexico in a Pasadena Playhouse Musical That Feels as Spirited as a Two-Man ‘Hamilton’

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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To paraphrase Aaliyah: Cast size ain’t nothing but a number. In the realm of the theater, no one exactly equates the number of headshots on a Playbill page with the ultimate fulfillment a stage show provides. Still, a question may arise: How few people can you have in a musical and still generate just as many killowatt-hours of energy as a full ensemble production?

It’s not a theoretical question. An answer strongly comes to us with the musical now playing at Pasadena Playhouse, “Mexodus,” a two-hander that can feel like a 20-hander as you’re going with the boisterous flow and forgetting to do the math. The show has Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson as both its writers and its stars, and these are two fellows who ought to be able to write their own tickets for some time to come, on the basis of this (asterisk: at least to the extent that anyone in the theater can), as actors and/or songwriters. Heck, if either of them decided to go really minimalist after this and do a one-man show, I’d be among the first in line.

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