Somewhere Over the Border Review: A Smart, Spirited Journey
Mosaic Theater’s lively production recasts The Wizard of Oz as the moving story of a Salvadoran teen mother’s journey to America.
Life looks alright in America to Reina, a desperate but starry-eyed teen mom in rural El Salvador who sets out for the U.S. in Brian Quijada’s brilliantly conceived Somewhere Over the Border.
As hinted in the title, this musical, with book, music, and lyrics by Quijada, reshapes the familiar narrative of The Wizard of Oz into Reina’s perilous journey of escape from poverty, violence, and political unrest in her homeland, to the gleaming American dream.
It’s a deceptively simple concept that Quijada elaborates with incisive drama, tart wit, and consistently smart choices in how he fuses L. Frank Baum’s Oz characters to Reina’s story, inspired by his own mother’s immigrant journey to the U.S. in the 1970s.
Quijada’s previous play, Mexodus, co-created by Nygel D. Robinson, also led with a big idea the practically untold story of enslaved Black people who, instead of venturing north to freedom, escaped south along the Underground Railroad to Mexico. Buoyed by an infectious hip-hop score, Mexodus had its world premiere at Mosaic Theater in a fantastic 2024 production before becoming a hit Off-Broadway.
Lightning has not necessarily struck twice with Somewhere Over the Border, soundly staged by Raymond O. Caldwell, but Mosaic’s show is undeniably entertaining and wonderfully executed in many aspects.
Driving the bus, figuratively and frequently onstage, Camilo Linares ties the whole rambling ride together as energetic Narrator, troubadour, and utility player in scene after scene. With or without a Spanish guitar slung around his neck, Linares often sets the tone with winking delivery or a knowing glance, or in a song like the engaging Latin folk-meets-rap opener “Everyday Towns.”‘
Reina, portrayed with touching humility by Pepin, joins the Narrator singing of her home among “everyday people in an everyday town.” The town is Chanmico, the year is 1978, and Reina, seventeen and pregnant, and already deserted by the baby’s father, sees limited options for her to take care of herself and her child.
Civil war is brewing, with revolutionary protests and state-sponsored violence searing the streets and countryside. Jobs are few, and wages are low, as her single mom Julia (Natascia Diaz), could also attest.
To the swaying rhythms of “In the USA,” Reina laments the grind of work, work, work while raising her newborn, Fernando, amid the nation’s political and civic unrest. Though Pepin’s resonant vocals can sometimes tend towards reediness, the emotion of a song never goes lacking.
Reina firms her resolve to leave with the brightly hopeful “Somewhere Over the Border.” Then, her supportive boss Napoleon, performed fabulously by Mejiah, puts her on a path to the U.S. with the delightful “El Gran Coyote de Tijuana.”
Seek out El Gran Coyote, Napoleon tells her, for he can get you over the border. The well-chosen Wizard of Oz references, as Reina hits the not-quite yellow brick road to Tijuana, are continually amusing and generally make perfect sense.
She encounters Cruz (Oscar Salvador, Jr.), a sweet-voiced banana farmer who longs for a stateside university education. They pick up Silvano (Mejiah again), an innkeeper on his way to Pittsburgh, hoping to heal his broken heart. The group is soon joined by rock’n’roll-loving nun Leona (a marvelous Gloria Vivica Benavides), who might be a badass but has so far not found the courage to go for the life she wants over the border.
So off they all go to see El Gran Coyote, and find their brains, heart, nerve, and home. The journey lives in the appealing score and performances, and the landscape provided by Jonathan Dahm Robertson’s scenic design, with a great assist from Chelsea Dean’s prop design.
Rows and rows of clotheslines hung with dingy and shredded garments capture Reina and Julia’s workaday existence in Chanmico. Pieces of the blocky set cleverly convert to the various modes of transportation Reina and her friends employ to reach their destination.
Unfortunately, not enough of the set and imagined landscape changes along the way to convey the visual fantasy of moving from grayscale to technicolor.
Occasionally, we’re offered glimpses of Julia (the Wicked Witch?) still in their drab town, raising baby Fernando while his mom treks across the desert. So Diaz has some growth to play but these scenes and songs land heavily. The looks back register as overly sentimental.
However, the script sharpens its aim once Reina sees “Oz,” and discovers that life’s not all right in America. The empathy engendered through hers and her friends’ arduous journey pays off beautifully with insight into who comes over the U.S. border and why, and what might await them once they get here.
Somewhere Over the Border (★★★★☆) runs through Oct. 18 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $62 to $84, with discount options and rush tickets available for each performance. Call 202-399-7993, ext. 2 or visit mosaictheater.org.
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