In this mixed review of Zoot Suit, Gill compares Valdez's play to a "broadened and cheapened" version of the classic musical West Side Story. While the critic feels that the work is suitable entertainment and deals with important social issues, he felt that it ultimately lacks true greatness.

In the pompous program notes accompanying ' 'Zoot Suit' (at the Winter Garden), we are instructed that the show is "loosely based on the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Mystery of 1942 and the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 in Los Angeles [which] like other historical events that pass into folklore have become a kind of myth—a mixture of fact and fancy certain to elicit strong feelings when examined from any of a variety of perspectives." A footnote in fine print further instructs us that "while some of the events portrayed did indeed occur, others did not," and continues, "The characters are...