Pepito in the Washington Post
”So “Pepito” got pride of place. It wasn’t just because dogs and children tend to steal the show. It was because Nicolas Lell Benavides, the composer, and Marella Martin Koch, the librettist, found a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines. We got, right away, the dynamic between the young couple, he a workaholic, she looking for more connection, both well sung by the bright tenor Joshua Blue and the soprano Alexandra Nowakowski. We got the officious woman at the shelter (Alexandra Christoforakis), exasperated, one could infer, by unserious would-be adopters. And we got the dog. Weiser played a person playing a dog, evoking the animal rather than crawling around on all fours; when called on to kiss Camila, rather than licking her hand, he took her in his arms and dipped her in good old-fashioned musical-comedy tradition. At the end, the clueless husband, seeing the effect the dog had on his wife, got a clue, and they all went off together. I won’t say it avoids cliche altogether. But I will say that it worked.”
Anne Midgette, Washington Post