The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. Set in Steeltown, U.S.A., the Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed includes a panoply of social figures. It follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers and combat the powerful industrialist Mr. Mister, who controls the town's factory, press, church, and social organization. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein included popular song styles of the time.

The WPA temporarily shut down the project a few days before it was to open on Broadway. To avoid government and union restrictions, the show was performed on June 16, 1937, with Blitzstein playing piano onstage and the cast members singing their parts from the audience.

The original cast consisted of John Adair, Guido Alexander, Marc Blitzstein, Peggy Coudray, Howard da Silva, George Fairchild, Robert Farnsworth, Edward Fuller, Will Geer, Maynard Holmes, Frank Marvel, Charles Niemeyer, Le Roi Operti, Jules Schmidt, George Smithfield, Olive Stanton, and Bert Weston.

The Cradle Will Rock was reprised January–April 1938 as part of the first season of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory company founded by Welles and Houseman. An abridged version of the production was recorded and released in 1938, the first original cast recording ever made.

History

The Cradle Will Rock had its genesis in composer Marc Blitzstein's Sketch No. 1, Bertolt Brecht had heard the sketch at Blitzstein's apartment in late 1935, and suggested that he expand its theme from literal to figurative prostitution. Blitzstein remembered him as saying, "There is prostitution for gain in so many walks of life: the artist, the preacher, the doctor, the lawyer, the newspaper editor. Why don't you put them against this scene of literal selling." Blitzstein took up the idea and ultimately dedicated The Cradle Will Rock to Brecht. "as a kind of rebound from my wife's death in May." The drafted short score was completed September 2, 1936.

Welles thought about directing The Cradle Will Rock for the Theatre Guild, which was a long shot;</blockquote>

Blitzstein wrote his sister: "Hallie F. is nuts about the work—but just as terrified of it."

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! Scene

! Title + Performer

! References

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| 1: Streetcorner

| "I'm Checkin' Home Now"Moll (mezzo)

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| 2: Nightcourt

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| 3: Mission

| "Mission Scene"Mrs. Mister (mezzo), Reverend Salvation (baritone)

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An ingenue in early Universal Pictures films, Peggy Coudray (Mrs. Mister) had earned praise for her comedy skills in soubrette roles in stage musicals and operettas. The comic actor Hiram Sherman (Junior Mister) was a childhood friend of Welles and a veteran of his farce Horse Eats Hat. Other cast were selected for the clarity and strength of their voices, supplemented by an interracial chorus of 44 singers. He and Asadata Dafora choreographed Welles's Voodoo Macbeth, and Yates was in the cast of his Doctor Faustus.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-1.jpg|Clarence Yates (foreground) rehearsing cast members at Maxine Elliott's Theatre

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-4.jpg|Yates rehearsing the cast

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-7.jpg|Yates rehearsing the cast

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-8.jpg|From left: George Fairchild, Olive Stanton, Will Geer, Hiram Sherman, Peggy Coudray, Yates

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-3.jpg|Yates rehearsing the cast

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-2.jpg|Stanton rehearsing

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-9.jpg|Yates rehearsing Stanton

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-5.jpg|Stanton, Yates, Coudray

File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-6.jpg|Stanton, Yates, Coudray

</gallery>

"It is not very fashionable these days to refer admiringly to the Federal Theatre Project, and yet it was responsible for a great number of today's writers, stars, directors and stage designers," Blitzstein said in a 1956 interview. "We had unlimited time to prepare the production and we had really quite extraordinary talents in every department at our disposal. Rehearsals moved toward a state of perfection rarely attained in our present‐day theater." After a few weeks' run, the musical was to play in repertory with Faustus Flanagan concluded that "this was obviously censorship under a different guise." Syndicated columnist Jay Franklin reported: "Those who saw the dress rehearsal say that it is a gay, fast-moving, exciting show—one which subjects the social scene to radical criticism and still retains a sense of humor and of proportion."

"The hammer fell in the form of considerable governmental budget cuts just as Cradle was to open," Welles said, "at the height of the CIO's efforts to organize steel. Another reason for closing us was that, unlike most WPA plays, we were going to be on Broadway, which opponents feared would attract considerable attention." The 600 audience members, who had gathered outside the Maxine Elliot Theatre for the preview, travelled 21 blocks north to the Venice Theatre; many were on foot. According to The New York Timess description of the original production, "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." Houseman also announced that the musical would continue to be performed with Blitzstein playing piano onstage and the cast members singing from the audience. He asserted that this made the audience feel like part of the show, stating, "There has always been the question of how to produce a labor show so the audience feels like it is a part of the performance. This technique seems to solve that problem and is exactly the right one for this particular piece".

Mercury Theatre

The Cradle Will Rock was presented by the Mercury Theatre as part of its inaugural season. On December 5, 1937, it opened in a reduced oratorio version on Sunday evenings at the Mercury Theatre, using the set for Caesar and two rows of chairs. The cast included Will Geer, Howard da Silva, Hiram Sherman, a chorus of 12, and Marc Blitzstein at the piano.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">

File:Cradle-Mercury-1.jpg|Marc Blitzstein, Howard da Silva and Olive Stanton in the Mercury Theatre presentation of The Cradle Will Rock

File:Cradle-Mercury-2.jpg|Entire cast of the Mercury Theatre presentation of The Cradle Will Rock, with all the scenic effects used

File:Mercury-Theatre-Poster-1938.jpg|Mercury Theatre poster (1938)

File:Cradle-Will-Rock-Blitzstein-Stanton-1938.jpg|Blitzstein (with Stanton leaning on the piano, January 1938)

File:Cradle-Will-Rock-Da-Silva-Stanton-1938.jpg| Da Silva and Stanton (January 1938)

</gallery>

Later productions

Broadway and Off-Broadway

The musical was revived on Broadway on December 26, 1947, at the Mansfield Theatre, then 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 Silva and played 34 performances. The UK premiere took place in London at the Unity Theatre, King's Cross, in 1951.

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

The show was revived Off-Broadway in 1964 in a production starring Jerry Orbach (Larry Foreman), Nancy Andrews (Mrs. Mister), Lauri Peters (Moll), and Micki Grant (Ella Hammer), directed by Howard da Silva. Leonard Bernstein acted as music supervisor to music director Gershon Kingsley. 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 toured the United States during the Acting Company's 1983-1984 season, bringing this show to sold out audiences across the nation, with a mostly young just-out-of-college cast which featured Laura Brutsman (Busch) in the roles of Moll/Sister Mister which had been performed by Patty Lupone Off Broadway. The national tour music director and onstage pianist was Charles Berigan. Both were recent graduates of the Juilliard School. The Off Broadway production was recorded for television and aired on PBS in 1986.

Other productions

The show was revived in 1985 at The Old Vic (near Waterloo Station) featuring alumni members of The Acting Company. In this production Patti LuPone reprised her role as Moll and was honored with an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Splinter Group Theatre's Chicago production in 1994 was named one of the Ten Best plays of the year by the Chicago Tribune. Directed by Matt O'Brien, with musical direction by Jim Collins, the production style recreated the bare bones approach necessitated by the 1937 production's opening night and later transferred from Splinter Group's space in Wicker Park to the larger Theatre Building in Chicago, running a total of three months in the two locations.

Mehmet Ergen directed a production in London for the Arcola Theatre's 10th Anniversary in 2010 starring Alicia Davies, Stuart Matthew Price, Morgan Deare, Chris Jenkins and Josie Benson. It was the last show at the Arcola Street location, before the company moved to its new space, opposite the Dalston Junction station.

The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival staged a summer stock production in 2012. Directed by Joey Rizzolo, one of the New York Neo-Futurists (who are known for their Brechtian approach to theater), the production opened to critical acclaim.

Response

Cultural references

The Cradle Will Rock

thumb|upright|Front cover of the 1994 book publication of the screenplay for The Cradle Will Rock, an unrealized film by Orson Welles

In 1984, Orson Welles wrote the screenplay for a film he planned to direct—The Cradle Will Rock, an autobiographical drama about the 1937 staging of Blitzstein's play. Rupert Everett was cast to portray the 21-year-old Welles Welles was unable to secure funding and the project was not realized.

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 Man at the Crossroads 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. The name of the actor who played Doctor Specialist in the original production is given to the fictional character "Frank Marvel" (Barnard Hughes), who plays 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, as a companion to the movie; it discusses the original show, his adaptation, and the filming of the motion picture.

Recordings

A slightly abridged version of Welles's 1937 Mercury Theatre production with narration by Blitzstein was recorded in April 1938 and released on the Musicraft label (number 18). It was the first original cast recording ever made. A digital version of the Musicraft 78s is available through the Internet Archive.

In December 1964 the recording was re-released in a limited-edition LP on the American Legacy Records label (T1001).

Discography

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

  • 1938label: Musicraftconductor: Blitzsteincast: Stanton/Collins/Weston/da Silva/MacBane
  • 1964label: MGMconductor: Kingsleycast: Peters-L/Grant/Dittmann/Orbach/Clarke
  • 1985label: TERconductor: Barrettcast: LuPone/Woods-MD/Matthews-A/Mell/Schramm
  • 1994label: Lockett-Palmerconductor: Batescast: Dawn?/Green-MP?/Lund?/Baratta?/van Norden?
  • 1999label: RCA Victorconductor: Campbellcast: Harvey/McDonald/unknown/unknown/unknown (soundtrack of Robbins movie; music is abridged)

References

  • The Cradle Will Rock information on marc-blitzstein.org. Includes scoring, cast, publication info, synopsis, press clippings and commentary.
  • The Cradle Will Rock: a detailed analysis by Scott Miller, newlinetheatre.com, with background to the 1937 musical and discussion of the 1999 movie