Summary
This musical shines a light on the lesser-known southern routes of the Underground Railroad, following a young enslaved man from Texas as he escapes to freedom in Mexico. He is taken in by a Mexican-American war veteran, and their journey explores the powerful solidarity that can form between different oppressed communities.
Thursday, October 9, 2025 Oct 9, 2025
The best, most important, most urgent piece of musical theater in the last couple years. Please see this. The branding is awful. The show is not. Sit close. Let Nygel spray you.
Monday, October 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM Oct 27, 2025, 7:00 PM
[Notes, don’t think I’ll finish this]
In “Mexodus,” playing music is work. Henry lifts his hands from the cello as he prays for his unshackling, and the track is looped into a dehumanized chorus of others like him - slaves singing work songs in the fields. Later, he returns to work voluntarily and shows Carlos how to till the soil; they play their guitars together, first in unison, then in harmony. The instruments are new and old, formal and improvised, giving the sound an anachronistic timelessness that suits pairing the historical story with explicit contemporary political messaging.
The flow of migrants across borders is and always has been people taking calculated risks to find safety, security, and opportunity, wherever that may take them. The history books, written by the victors, fail to mention when people have desperately tried to get out of the United States. “Did you know this shit? We didn’t know this shit.” America is often great, but it hasn’t always been, and it isn’t always guaranteed to be. It’s not easy - we have a lot of advantages - but it is certainly possible to fumble it away.
Subjugating groups of people and limit testing the system because you’ve made a political calculation that you can get away with it - it works until it doesn’t. Brinksmanship feels really smart until you tip over the edge. You would much rather be the place that people are trying to get to.
Anyways, transfer this to the Hayes so it can play spoiler at the Tonys