Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, currently under Lindsey Duoos Gearhart's direction, is staged by Stone Soup Theater Company at the 10th Avenue Theater. The play has an interesting past. In January 1936 Bertolt Brecht suggested to Blitzstein that he expand his short piece. Over an intensive five-week period ending on September 2, 1936, the musical play was finished, and he dedicated it to Brecht.
Just a little over a year later, a 21-year-old WPA director mounted the play. His producer was John Houseman, the director, Orson Welles. Alas, the work was shut down after only 104 performances. Instrumental in the closure was the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which perceived that it had left-wing tendencies. The true story was made into a film in 1999, directed by Tim Robbins.
No question that The Cradle Will Rock is a gritty story sympathetic to the rise of unions, while portraying management as dictatorial tyrants. The story opens with a Moll (prostitute), played by Katie Harroff, and a once prosperous pharmacist (Andy Collins) talking. He is explaining how a group of apparently successful upright folks have sold out their principles for money and power. She is thrown into the slammer for her alleged professional endeavors. Soon thereafter Larry Forman (Christopher T. Miller), a union organizer, is brought into court. Harroff and Miller are the only cast members with single roles. All the others pop in and out as several different characters each. Even the accompanist, Musical Director/pianist Billy Thompson, has multiple roles.
Six upright citizens have also been hauled off to the hoosegow. They are a newspaper editor (Calah Beck), college president (Amy Northcutt), a doctor specialist (Doug Shattuck), Reverend Salvation (Bryan Curtiss White), Mrs. Mister (Sarah Michelle Cuc), and Yasha (Tom Doyle). Overseeing these miscreants is a totally incompetent cop (Anthony Simone). The final representative of the establishment is a totally tyrannical (and probably very evil) despot who runs the world of business, Mr. Mister (Brett Daniels). He's definitely a man no one, no matter how powerful they believe they are, would ever dare to cross. That is until Larry Forman goes head to head with him. (Okay, I can understand why the original show closed after only 107 performances. No doubt it was picketed too!)
The Cradle Will Rock is described as a "play in music." Much of the story is told through song from the opening number "Moll's Song" to the final scene. Scene Two features a delightful "Oh What a Filthy Night Court." In Scene Three the preacher has his glorious moment in "The Sermon" at his mission. A Scene Four highlight is the iconic "The Freedom of the Press."
The Moll laments the Depression in "The Nickel Under Your Foot." The title song is both sung and spoken. There is only limited transitional dialogue between the musical numbers.
Director Gearhart has utilized the 10th Avenue Theater's unique space well. Much of the action is choreographed. This could easily have been done in a recital style; however, the director gives life to the production by featuring individual cast members as much as possible.
The cast vary in the quality of their performances but are generally up to their roles. I would like to have seen a bit more drama in the presentation of the music. The show, incidentally, is as relevant to today's economy and greed as it was over 70 years ago.
