Zoot Suit
Too bad the Goodman couldn’t have closed out its long stay at the Art Institute–it’s moving to the Loop next fall–with its recent production of Jitney or A Moon for the Misbegotten. Its well-executed revival of Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit is exuberant but surprisingly flat emotionally. Yet the show marks several milestones for the theater. Not only is it the first production by a Chicano playwright ever to grace the Goodman’s main stage, it’s also the Chicago premiere of a much acclaimed work: Valdez, who founded El Teatro Campesino, is arguably the best-known Latino playwright of our time. The 1978 play opened in Los Angeles and went on to Broadway, then was adapted for the 1981 Golden Globe-nominated film of the same name, directed by Valdez and featuring Edward James Olmos. (Six years later, Valdez directed the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba.)
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Where this production falters is in its human elements, which often seem secondary to the spectacle. Though Henry Reyna’s case is fraught with pathos and injustice, one feels surprisingly detached from it, and Reyna’s imprisonment and later release are strangely unaffecting. This is due in part to the broad way in which Valdez has painted the scene, but it’s also the result of presenting many of the characters as 1940s movie types rather than carefully thought-out individuals. Cops, newspaper writers, and other familiar figures have a rote, shorthand quality.
