ZOOT SUIT
Directed and Written by Luis Valdez
Choreography by Patricia Birch
After seeing some shows, one is tempted to say, "I gave at the office." Moral solicitation for worthy causes is an old and honorable U.S. custom. So is a distaste for indignity and injustice. But, barring isolated instances, the theater does not lend itself comfortably to social polemics and underdog rhetoric. What too often happens, and Zoot Suit is a case in point, is the reduction of the stage to a soapbox and the meaningless ritual of preaching to the already converted.
Zoot...