As a relatively new Los Angelino, I realize there’s a lot I’ve got to learn. About the summer weather, for example: never wear shorts if you have leather seats in your car; or the spaghetti pile of streets that make up LA proper; it’s pronounced “Ka-Wayne-Gah” not “Kah-hoo-een-gah”; and Cesar Chavez Blvd. happens to be named after one of the most dynamic civil rights activists the State of California has ever known.

Written and directed by Ed Begley Jr., “Cesar and Ruben” is a musical biography that uses a colorful musical palette to celebrate Chavez’s vibrant legacy as a labor leader and civil rights activist. Begley, an environmental activist in his own right, knew Chavez personally and had a very profound respect and admiration for the man — the reverence of which is evident in every minute of this compelling portrait.

Cesar and Ruben takes the admittedly tired vehicle of “dead guy revisits past” and recycles it with a fresh spin: the spirits of both Cesar Chavez (Danny Bolero) and late LA Times reporter Ruben (Mauricio Mendoza) are only able to remember their past lives with the aid of the other’s memory … and a very special jukebox. Cesar and Ruben unfolds Chavez’s life story through a series of well-executed musical flashbacks that don’t stall or jar the show, but keep propelling us onward through a life as tumultuous as the times it represented. 

We journey from the fields of San Jose where Cesar was a young farm worker, to the political arena of 1960s Los Angeles where he stood firmly alongside Senator Robert Kennedy, Chavez’s confident battle cry ‘Si, se puede’ led him to co-founding the United Farm Workers with Dolores Huerta (Danielle Barbosa), staging boycotts in demand for better labor wages and working conditions, and becoming a Hispanic-American icon.

Choreographer Frankie Anne utilizes the Noho Arts Centre stage to its absolute potential with fiery (often downright angry) numbers that turn mainstream pop songs and Spanish standards into integral elements of the show’s beating core (Think Baz Luhrman’s “Moulin Rouge”). There are some sequences that quite simply don’t mesh, but these few moments are excusable as the majority of “Cesar and Ruben” runs like a well-oiled machine.

Of course, the cast helps too. Barbosa as Cesar Chavez’s right-hand woman Dolores Huerta is magnetic — she’s a feisty little bearcat who is perhaps the show’s biggest asset. Bolero’s Chavez manages to be both reticent and volatile, although he allows himself to be overshadowed by the more colorfully characters around him more often than not. Of note too is the smartly dressed, loveably smug Mendoza, and a scene-stealing little Eli Vargas whose portrayal of young Cesar is enough reason alone to pay Cesar and Ruben a visit.

Never overly sentimental or dull, Cesar and Ruben is at most times engrossing and maybe even a bit important. So it is possible to better the world we live in.

Cesar and Ruben runs through September 16 at the Noho Arts Center at 11136 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood. For tickets logon to www.nohoartscenter.com or call 818/508-7101.