Original Producers Plan ‘Zoot Suit’ Revival; Orpheum Offers Its First Play Since the ‘60s

A revival of “Zoot Suit” is in the works.

The 1978 production of Luis Valdez’s piece about cultural conflict in World War II-era Los Angeles is one of the seminal reference points of Latino-American theater history--and recent Los Angeles theater history. “For the first time, CTG/Mark Taper Forum turns its beam on its own city,” began Dan Sullivan’s Times review of that initial production.

The original producers, CTG (Center Theatre Group) and Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino, as well as San Francisco producer Charles Duggan, are trying to assemble the revival. The plan is to open the show next fall in San Francisco, where it has never been staged. The likeliest site there is the Golden Gate Theatre. Then it would move to Los Angeles and possibly to Washington.

No contracts have been signed, but Duggan said the producers have a letter of intent from Edward James Olmos to re-create his role of El Pachuco. And Valdez “is reworking it to make it more of a full-scale musical instead of a play with music,” he added.

If the show comes together, it could be offered as part of the 1990-91 Ahmanson or Mark Taper seasons or as a bonus attraction to subscribers, said CTG’s Gordon Davidson.

Several theaters are under consideration for the show in Los Angeles. The most interesting possibilities are a few of the vintage downtown cinemas, such as the Orpheum, a 64-year-old, 2,084-seat vaudeville and movie palace at Broadway and 9th Street, in the heart of a heavily Latino shopping district. Davidson likes the idea of using the Orpheum or its nearby mate, the Million Dollar Theater. But more conventional sites, such as the Wilshire in Beverly Hills, are also possibilities.

AT THE ORPHEUM: The Orpheum Theater doesn’t have to wait for “Zoot Suit.” A touring production of Thomas Meloncon’s “The Diary of Black Men . . . How Do You Love a Black Woman?” will open there Friday and play through Sunday. It will be the first play at the Orpheum since the early ‘60s, according to a theater spokesman.

Bruce Corwin, whose Metropolitan Theatres Corp. owns the Orpheum and operates it as a movie theater, said he hopes “Diary” is “a crack in the door” leading to many more stage productions. The theater has a full stage, dressing rooms and parking next door, he said. Four single events, involving a mixture of film and live acts, were held there recently.

Corwin said that movies are less of a financial risk than stage productions at his company’s 10 downtown theaters. But he has “a whole bunch of emotional reasons” for wanting to present live theater at the Orpheum. (His father, Sherrill Corwin, is credited with reviving vaudeville at the Orpheum when he became the theater’s manager in the early ‘30s.) Furthermore, he added, “if these theaters are going to have a future, it has to be with stage presentations.”

LATC CHANGES: “And Baby Makes Seven” has replaced “Dark Sun” as the third play in Los Angeles Theatre Center’s next season. Another recent addition to the season is the premiere of a play by Israel Horovitz.

The scheduling of “Dark Sun” fell apart because of a casting disagreement between its South African author, Lisette Lecat Ross, and LATC management.

Ross wanted to import two South African actors who currently live in New York for her three-character play. The writer’s agent, Sam Liff, said the play requires the actors to speak Zulu and Xhosa, and Ross “felt the authenticity was extremely important.”

But “we don’t bring in actors from all over the country to audition,” said LATC producing director Diane White. Ross “wasn’t even willing to see” local actors, she added. The LATC staging would have been the play’s premiere, and no other productions have been set.

“And Baby Makes Seven,” which will replace “Dark Sun” in the March 10-April 29 slot, is a comedy about two lesbians and a gay man who share three imaginary children, as well as a house. One of the women becomes pregnant--for real. Peggy Shannon’s staging will be the Los Angeles premiere of Paula Vogel’s play, which opened in St. Louis in 1985 and also has been produced in San Francisco and Alaska.

The premiere of Israel Horovitz’s “Strong-Man’s Weak Child” will fill the fifth slot in the season, May 18-July 8, with the author directing a co-production with his Gloucester Stage Co., of Gloucester, Mass., where the play is set. It’s about three men who pump iron together, and one of their children.

LATC’s predecessor, Los Angeles Actors’ Theater, presented three of Horovitz’s plays--”The Widow’s Blind Date,” “Park Your Car in the Harvard Yard” and “The Primary English Class”--but this will be his debut at LATC.

Both additions to the season received earlier readings at LATC.

Horovitz’s play will bump the previously announced “Viva Detroit” from the fifth to the sixth slot in the season, June 9-July 29, in order to accommodate the schedules of Horovitz and “Viva Detroit” actor Danny Glover, whose work in a film would have conflicted with the previous booking.

It was another star’s shooting schedule for a TV series that led to a change in the announced cast of “Stevie Wants to Play the Blues,” opening at LATC Feb. 17. Jonelle Allen couldn’t accommodate the play to her schedule on the soap opera “Generations” and was replaced by Paula Kelly.

PADUA HILLS are alive . . . with the sound of the R-Mondo Band, entertaining at a benefit dance party for Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop/Festival, Sunday evening at DC 3, a restaurant at Santa Monica Airport. Tickets cost $100. Information: (213) 913-2636.

Next summer, Padua Hills will return to the Art & Design Center of Cal State Northridge after a successful workshop/festival there last year. The festival (public performances) will expand from three to four weeks, July 19-Aug. 12.

Among the festival productions will be “Salsa Opera,” a musical piece about Central American immigration to the United States by Nicaraguan playwright Alan Bolt. The festival received a $20,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant for “Salsa Opera.” Festival director Murray Mednick hopes to present workshops of it in Latino neighborhoods prior to the festival, and to stage a full production of it after the festival.

IN GARDEN GROVE: The Grove Shakespeare Festival’s 1990 season will open May 18 with “The Miser,” to be followed by “Much Ado About Nothing,” “As You Like It,” “Othello” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Information: (714) 636-7213.