Somewhere Over the Border Makes Its DC Premiere at Mosaic Theater
Mosaic Theater Company opens its season with the DC premiere of Somewhere Over the Border, a new musical by Brian Quijada, running September 10 through October 4 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE.
Quijada is no stranger to Mosaic audiences. He co-created and starred in Mexodus, which premiered at Mosaic before going on to back-to-back Off-Broadway runs. With Somewhere Over the Border, he returns with a deeply personal project, a musical inspired by the true story of his mother's immigration from El Salvador to the United States in the 1970s, reimagined through the framework of The Wizard of Oz.
In this telling, Dorothy becomes Reina, a young mother who leaves her home in El Salvador as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Unable to earn a livable wage and fearing for her safety, she sets out for the United States, leaving behind the infant son she hopes to send for once she has built a better life. As Reina travels north through Guatemala and Mexico toward the border, she gathers fellow travelers along the way, companions who echo the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion, all of them seeking guidance from El Gran Coyote de Tijuana, the all-knowing figure who can lead them to the other side.
Quijada has said the story began with an awkward question he asked his mother years ago about who his oldest brother's father was. The answer unspooled into an extraordinary tale, one made all the more poignant by a painful truth at its center. His mother believed her journey would take a few weeks, maybe a few months, before she could return for her son with a green card in hand. It ended up taking ten years.
The score reflects the sweep of that journey, blending cumbia, Mexican mariachi boleros, rock, and hip hop into a musical language all its own. Since its world premiere in Chicago in 2022, the show has been produced across the country, earning praise for its infectious songs, its balance of whimsy and heartbreak, and Quijada's gifts as a composer and storyteller, with more than one observer drawing comparisons to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Audiences have found it equal parts joyful and harrowing, a road-trip fable that steadily reveals the human cost beneath the fairy tale while honoring the grit and resilience of those who make the journey.
The DC premiere also marks something of a homecoming for the piece. Mosaic artistic leadership was involved in the show's first developmental process, and Quijada has spoken about how meaningful it is to bring the musical back to the people who helped shape it in its earliest days.
Somewhere Over the Border runs September 10 through October 4 at Mosaic Theater Company at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC.