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Written in 1936, The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein is a music theater piece contemporary with Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's Four
Saints in
Three Acts. While Four Saints is deemed an opera, Cradle with
more spoken
words has
been called
a play with
music, a
musical,
and,
occasionally,
an
operetta.
Blitzstein, who wrote both the words and the music for Cradle, received support for the debut production from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the United States federal government through its Federal Theatre Project. However, days before the opening on June 16, 1937, the WPA cancelled the show and sent armed guards to the theater to lock it up and to ensure no costumes or sets could be used anywhere else. Although the WPA had funded a variety of politically fraught theater projects, Congress demanded a 30% cut from Federal Theatre Projects productions operating in New York City. The musicians' and actors' unions insisted that their members not work at reduced rates. Additionally, the actors' union mandated that no actor could perform on stage without the permission of the original producers of the work (the federal government). Many in the New York theater community considered this action against the only WPA project scheduled for that June to be abject censorship.
On the
opening
day, a
twenty-one-year-old
Orson
Welles and
the
well-established
John
Houseman
(director
of Four Saints in Three Acts)
jumped
in to help
Blitzstein
engage
another
theater for
his
sold-out
audience.
Given the
limitations
set by the
musicians'
and actors'
unions, it
was decided
that
Blitzstein,
who
belonged to
neither
union,
would play
piano from
the stage
and sing
whatever
part was
not covered
by a
singer.
Participating
singers
would
perform
from seats
in the
audience.
For years,
the Steiny
Road Poet
had been
reading
about this
legendary
work.
Finally,
October 13,
2024, at
the Goldman
Theater of
the
Washington,
DC Jewish
Community
Center, she
saw a
polished
performance
of it, the
IN Series
production
directed by
Shanara
Gabrielle.
Cradle takes place in the fictitious Steeltown, USA. It features characters
whose names usually indicate their occupation or relationship to another
character. For example, Moll is a prostitute just trying to earn enough to
eat, Harriet Druggist is the pharmacist, Mr. Mister is the big shot political
boss with his family known as Mrs. Mister, Sister Mister, and Junior Mister.
The story throughline concerns a man named Larry Foreman who is trying
to organize the workers of the town into a union to counter the powerful
and corrupt Mr. Mister.
Cradle's ten scenes were threaded together in a runtime of an
intermission-less 90 minutes with the pianist on stage the entire time.
Music Director/pianist Emily Baltzer played a demanding role in the IN
Series production which she executed seamlessly. This was made more
remarkable given that the Goldman Theater was operating that day without
much needed air conditioning. So, while the audience resorted to fanning
with their paper programs, the pianist, under the hot lights, had to literally
play it cool.
A hot, languorous number opens Cradle as Moll (Melanie Ashkar) sings about her hard scrabble life as a streetwalker. Ashkar nails the Blitzstein
tune with sliding notes reminiscent of Kurt Weill's music from The Three
Penny Opera.
Praise is justly earned for Gabrielle's excellent direction and the tight
ensemble work of the remarkable performers. When they sing, they
enunciate with precision. When they dance, they move together as a team.
Ethan Sinnott's set is a utilitarian collection of brown pickets that variably
suggest a jail, courthouse, and speaker's podium. Steiny would have
enjoyed the performance more had the theater been a comfortable
temperature. 
In Steiny's opinion, the history of this work dealing with censorship,
speaking truth to power, and creative work-arounds has greater
significance than its artistic content. The Cradle Will Rock does not occupy
the same level of artistic achievement as, for example, Igor Stravinsky's
musically memorable The Rite of Spring which also had a calamitous
debut. In a statement published in the printed program, Artistic Director
Timothy Nelson presents the theme of the 2024-2025 IN Series season:
theater pieces that suffered censorship. "These works from different times
and places dare to rip apart the status quo and interrogate the meaning and
morality of power," said Nelson. The mission of IN Series productions is to
stimulate its audience to think and feel in new ways.
The Cradle Will Rock finished its run October 18-20, 2024, at the
Baltimore Theatre Project.
Photos: Bayou Elom
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