The Cradle Will Rock

For the 1999 film, see Cradle Will Rock. For the 1980 Van Halen song, see And the Cradle Will Rock....

The Cradle Will Rock
Poster from the Federal Theatre Project, Work Projects Administration production 1937
Music	Marc Blitzstein
Lyrics	Marc Blitzstein
Book	Marc Blitzstein
Productions	1938 Broadway 1947 Broadway revival 1964 Off-Broadway revival 1983 Off-Broadway revival 1985 West End

The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman. The show was recorded and released on seven 78-rpm discs in 1938, making it the first cast album recording.

The musical is a Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed. Set in "Steeltown, USA", it follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers and otherwise combat wicked, greedy businessman Mr. Mister, who controls the town's factory, press, church and social organization. Blitzstein portrays a whole panoply of societal figures: Mr. Mister's vicious, outwardly genteel philanthropic wife and spoiled children, sell-out artists, poor shopkeepers, immigrant families, a faithless priest, and an endearing prostitute named Moll. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein (as he often did, even in his full-blown operas) included popular song styles of the time.

Synopsis

Setting: Steeltown, U.S.A.

Act I

Moll, a tired and hungry prostitute, is arrested and jailed for refusing her services to a police officer loyal to Mr. Mister, the owner of the steel factory — and everything else in town. Members of the Liberty Committee, a group of prominent citizens who oppose the union, are also arrested, because a policeman mistook them for union organizers. At night court, Moll meets Harry Druggist, who is continually arrested for vagrancy after having lost his drugstore because of Mr. Mister.

Harry tells Moll that the Liberty Committee are bigger prostitutes than she is; he explains how they, and even himself, have sold out to Mr. Mister. In a series of flashbacks, we see this happen: Reverend Salvation is convinced by Mrs. Mister to make sermons on World War I that are convenient to the profits of the steel industry, Editor Daily of the Steeltown News is bullied into running stories against union organizer Larry Foreman and giving Mr. Mister's feckless son Junior Mister a correspondence job in Honolulu. Harry Druggist is strong-armed by one of Mr. Mister's henchmen into keeping quiet about a bomb planted in a car belonging to Gus Polack, an innocent immigrant steelworker who has joined the union. Harry's son Stevie is killed trying to save Gus and his pregnant wife from the blast.

Act II

More flashbacks show other Liberty Committee members selling out to Mr. Mister. The painter Dauber and the violinist Yasha work for Mrs. Mister, using their art to support her husband's ideals.

In the present, Larry Foreman is beaten by the police and jailed for "inciting to riot". He explains the principle behind unions, and says that the time is coming when "the cradle will rock" and overthrow Mr. Mister and others like him.

In another flashback, Mr. Mister has President Prexy and other faculty at Steeltown University get students to serve in the army. Doctor Specialist, Mr. Mister's personal doctor as well as the one that treated a worker who died in a machine accident, is threatened with the loss of his chairmanship of the Liberty Committee if he does not report that the worker was drunk. Ella Hammer, the worker's sister, knows that he was pushed, and angrily confronts the doctor.

When Mr. Mister arrives at night court to release the Liberty Committee, he offers Foreman a place on the Committee and a hefty bribe if he will give up his union activities. Foreman refuses: though a common man, he stands up to the corrupt forces of Mr. Mister. Mr. Mister feels that his monopoly may be slipping away. He confronts Foreman, but the workers are rising up.

Musical Numbers

Source:GuideToMusicalTheatre and Internet Broadway Database Listing

• Moll's Song (I'm Checkin' Home Now) - The Moll
• Moll and Gent - The Moll, A Gent
• Moll and Dick - The Moll, A Dick
• Moll and Druggist - The Moll, Druggist
• Oh, What a Filthy Night Court! - Editor Daily, Prexie, Yasha, Dauber, Doctor Specialist, Reverend Salvation
• Mrs. Mister and Reverend Salvation - Mrs. Mister, Reverend Salvation
• Croon Spoon - Junior Mister, Sister Mister
• The Freedom of the Press - Editor Daily, Mr. Mister
• Let's Do Something - Junior Mister, Sister Mister
• Honolulu - Editor Daily, Junior Mister, Mr. Mister, Sister Mister
• Drugstore Scene - Druggist, Steve, Bugs
• Gus and Sadie Love Song - Gus Polock and Sadie Polock
• The Rich - Yasha, Dauber
• Ask Us Again - Yasha, Dauber, Mrs. Mister
• Art for Art's Sake - Yasha, Dauber
• Nickel Under the Foot - The Moll
• Leaflets - Larry
• The Cradle Will Rock - Larry
• Faculty Room Scene - Mr. Mister, Prexie, Professor Trixie, Professor Scoot
• Doctor and Ella - Ella Hammer
• Joe Worker - Ella Hammer
• Finale/The Cradle Will Rock (reprise) - Larry, Ensemble

Principal Singing Roles

• Moll - mezzo-soprano
• Ella Hammer - mezzo-soprano
• Editor Daily - tenor
• Larry Foreman - baritone
• Mr. Mister - bass

Audio Recordings

key to casts: Moll/Ella Hammer/Editor Daily/Larry Foreman/Mr. Mister

• 1938 - label: Musicraft - conductor: Blitzstein - cast: Stanton/Collins/Weston/da Silva/MacBane
• 1964 - label: MGM - conductor: Kingsley - cast: Peters-L/Grant/Dittmann/Orbach/Clarke
• 1985 - label: TER - conductor: Barrett - cast: LuPone/Woods-MD/Matthews-A/Mell/Schramm
• 1994 - label: Lockett-Palmer - conductor: Bates - cast: Dawn?/Green-MP?/Lund?/Baratta?/van Norden?
• 1999 - label: RCA Victor - conductor: Campbell - cast: Harvey/McDonald/unknown/unknown/unknown (soundtrack of Robbins movie; music is abridged)

Original production

Originally set to open at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New York in June 1937 with elaborate sets and a full orchestra, the production was shut down due to political pressureand budget cuts within the Federal Theatre Project. The play was thought to be communist and leftist. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by security to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes, as all of this was considered U. S. Government property and could not be used in a for-profit theaterical production. According to The New York Times, "Within three days their theater the Maxine Elliott...was invaded by a dozen uniformed W.P.A. guards bearing strict orders prohibiting the removal of such Government property as scenery, props and costumes." after receiving a memo prohibiting the performance of the play.

The production was targeted by the government because of its leftist politics. The production was forbidden to be performed onstage, with the government threatening arrest to any actor appearing onstage.

On the spur of the moment, Welles, Houseman, and Blitzstein rented the much larger Venice Theatre and a piano, for a performance on June 17, 1937. They planned for Blitzstein to sing/play/read the entire musical to the sold-out house which had grown larger by inviting people off the street to attend for free. Just after beginning the first number, Blitzstein was joined by Olive Stanton, the actor playing Moll, from the audience. During the rest of the performance, various actors joined in with Blitzstein and performed the entire musical from the house. Cast members sang their lines from the audience and actors sang across the theatre to one another.

According to The New York Times account, "Persons who heard the opera's score and extracts last night carried no clear impression except that its theme was that steel workers should join a union." Poet Archibald MacLeish, who was in the audience, "praised the 'vitality' of the Federal Theatre Project." The success of the performance led Welles and Houseman to form the Mercury Theatre.

Later productions

Broadway and Off-Broadway

Following the impromptu opening and a brief run at the Venice Theatre (later renamed the New Century Theatre) in July 1937, the production reopened on January 3, 1938, at the Windsor Theatre under the auspices of the new Mercury Theatre Company. It played a total of 108 performances.

The musical was revived on Broadway on December 26, 1947, at the Mansfield Theater (subsequently moving to The Broadway Theatre) with a cast that included Alfred Drake (Larry Foreman), Vivian Vance (Mrs. Mister), Jack Albertson (Yasha), and original cast member Will Geer (Mr. Mister). The production was directed by Howard Da Silvaand played 34 performances.

The show was revived Off-Broadway in 1964 in a production starring Jerry Orbach (Larry Foreman), Nancy Andrews (Mrs. Mister), and Lauri Peters (Moll), directed by Howard Da Silva. Leonard Bernstein acted as music supervisor. The production ran at Theatre Four for 82 performances. This production won the Obie Award as Best Musical Production and Dean Dittman (who played Editor Daily) won the Obie for Distinguished Performance.

The Acting Company presented an Off-Broadway production at the American Place Theater from May 9, 1983 to May 29, 1983, directed by John Houseman and featuring a spoken introduction by Houseman, and starring Patti LuPone. This production was done "on a dark stage, decorated only with chairs and Dennis Parichy's poetic lighting. At dead center is the upright piano, whose expert player, Michael Barrett, delivers the Brechtian scene-setting announcements as Blitzstein once did." This production was premiered at The Acting Company's summer home at Chautauqua Institution.^{[citation needed]}During the run a man jumped onto the stage at the end of the play and screamed "Mr. Mister is still among us and the only way to defeat him is to JOIN THE COMMUNIST PARTY!"

Other productions

Blitzstein's rarely heard orchestrations were used in a February 21, 1960 broadcast by the New York City Opera featuring Tammy Grimes and David Atkinson.

The show was revived again in 1985 featuring alumni members of The Acting Company, in London's West End. In this production Patti LuPone reprised her role as Moll and was honored with an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Mehmet Ergen directed a production in London for the Arcola Theatre's 10th Anniversary in 2010. It was the last show at the Arcola Street location, before the company moved to its new space, opposite the Dalston Junction station.

Amateur and school productions

The musical was performed shortly after its initial New York production by students at Harvard, with a young Leonard Bernstein narrating from the piano.^{[citation needed]} It was performed by New Rochelle High School's Theatre Workshop of New Rochelle, New York, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006.^{[citation needed]} Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, also known as the Fame school, produced the piece in 2007.^{[citation needed]}

The New School University Student Senate produced The Cradle Will Rock directed by Sean Elias at the Off-Broadway venue, Theatre 80, for a weekend run. The production was part of the first Intercollegiate Collaborative Arts Project (iCAP). iCAP required that students from each of the 8 colleges that comprise The New School be involved in mounting the production. The script was adapted for 2011 by JK Fowler with the addition of a new vignette conceived by JK Fowler and Dean Preston Shtainhorn .^{[citation needed]}

Film, 1999

Main article: Cradle Will Rock

In 1999 writer/director Tim Robbins wrote a semi-fictional film recounting the original production of The Cradle Will Rock. The film, entitled Cradle Will Rock (without "The") blended the true history of Blitzstein's show with the creation (and subsequent destruction) of the original Diego Rivera mural in the lobby of Rockefeller Center (the Rivera mural was actually destroyed in 1934). Several of the original actors from the 1937 production were included as characters in the film, notably Olive Stanton, John Adair, and Will Geer, while others were replaced by fictional characters. Leading man Howard Da Silva was replaced by the fictional "Aldo Silvano" (John Turturro). Although Will Geer played Mr. Mister in the 1937 production, for the movie he was recast in the smaller role of the Druggist and a fictional actor named "Frank Marvel" (Barnard Hughes) portrayed Mr. Mister.

The film's climax recreates scenes from the original, legendary performance of the show, performed by veteran Broadway performers Victoria Clark, Gregg Edelman, Audra McDonald, Daniel Jenkins, Erin Hill, and Chris McKinney.

Robbins wrote a book (Cradle Will Rock: The Movie and the Moment, published by Newmarket Press, November 30, 1999, ISBN-13: 978-1557043993) about the original show, his adaptation, and the filming of the motion picture.

External links

• The Cradle Will Rock: a detailed analysis by Scott Miller, newlinetheatre.com, with background to the 1937 musical and discussion of the 1999 movie
• The Cradle Will Rock at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Cradle Will Rock: Fan site and research hub