Review by Neal Newman
July 21, 2004
SOMEWHERE OVER THE BOARDER, with book, music, and lyrics by Brian Quijada, is a captivating Hispanic musical that intertwines THE WIZARD OF OZ with THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE to narrate a poignant story of a young girl’s illegal journey from El Salvador to the USA. This story, inspired by Quijada’s mother’s life, resonates with the current socio-political climate, making it a compelling and relevant production. The performance at People’s Light in Malvern, co-produced with Pittsburgh CLO and City Theatre Company, brings this powerful narrative to life with a talented, nearly all-Hispanic cast and crew making their local debuts.
The music, led by musical director Michael Meketa Sanchez on keyboards, is a diverse and vibrant blend of Latin sounds, rap, hip-hop, musical theater, and folk music. This inventive mixture, not a clumsily through-composed work as with Lloyd Webber, adds a unique and exciting dimension to the production, reminiscent of the dynamic storytelling in DREAMGIRLS. This musical diversity alone is a remarkable achievement.
Isabella Campos leads the solid cast as Reina, the Dorothy character who begins a road trip at 17. This actress is a wonder with a great career ahead of her. Singing, acting, and movement are infused with the power of Reina’s dream. She binds the cast together and presents a beautiful performance. Right up there is Arusi Santi, who narrates the story, plays acoustic guitar and inventively inhabits several minor characters, including the Wizard, who has been reimagined as a border coyote. The actor’s warmth and accessible communication with the audience is unforgettable. The rest of the cast memorably appears in many roles, with Jerreme Rodriguez as a banana farmer who longs for a college education (a brain) and Bobby Plasencia as a drunken innkeeper who misses his family (a heart) who has relocated to some faraway place called Malvern, PA. This trio of travelers on the not-so-yellow path to a new future is abetted with a showstopping turn by Gloria Vivica Benavides, a nun with nonreligious visions of America. Ariana Valdes holds down the drama with emotional songs as the mother who is abandoned by her daughter and forced to raise the infant son.
The production, directed by Laura Alcala Baker, is fantastic. Chelsea M. Warren has designed a cleverly effective pop-up unit set for many locations, ably complemented by Joe Spinogatti’s projections and films, which transports out of El Salvador to an exciting road trip vibe. Damian E. Dominguez’s costumes add depth and excitement to the event. Stefanie Senior’s sound design and the lighting by Cat Wilson enhance the fear and terror the characters experience as the dream turns violent in the final sequences.
A few caveats. The lyrics are frequently difficult to understand, coming in at about 60% intelligibility. This could mean the words look better on paper than in the theater, or the cast could be urged to enunciate a bit more when singing.
The pure joy of the first 90 minutes is let down in the final half hour. This is a real dramaturgical challenge for the writer because much of the point of the play’s theme is that there is no Wizard in America, only a life of disappointment and struggle, all in the distant hope of a better future. The author banishes most of the cast from this sequence and throws all the pathos to Reina, which is more than the outstanding actress and audience can expect. I wish she had, at this point, a real anthem that would combine the experience’s joy and pain and the vision of the rainbow of America. That would genuinely complete the narrative. Still, the audience at the curtain call applauded powerfully for an unqualified success.
The People’s Light program describes the Malvern area as “purplish.” If the question of immigration on the Southern Border is that locally contentious, the playwright, director, and cast are performing a genuine service to our divided country as we enter the new 1938.,
RUNNING TIME: 2 hours with an intermission.
SOMEWHERE OVER THE BORDER is presented through August 11, by People’s Light Theatre at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA. Tickets can be obtained at peopleslight.org or by calling 610-644-3500.