The UCLA Department of Music, Committee on Fine Arts Productions
And the UCLA Musical Theater Workshop presents
The Cradle Will Rock
a play in music by
Marc Blitzstein
Directed by John Hall
February 6,7,11-14,19 &20, 1981 @ 8:30pm
February 8 & 15 @2:30pm
Little Theater
Schoenberg Hall, UCLA
As a young man Marc Blitzstein had been an avant-garde composer of concert
music. The great depression of the 1930’s changed him to a man with
a strong sense of social injustice and some frankly leftist political views.
Both of these characteristics are found in his “play in music”
The Cradle Will Rock, and it was these characteristics that brought government
officials to attempt to block its premiere in 1937.
Originally planned as a full scale musical with scenery, orchestra and costumes, the company and first night audience found themselves locked out of the theater by Federal order. A frantic search found an empty theater nearby, and the cast and audience assembled to hear the work on a bare stage with the composer playing an upright piano. Strangely enough, this bare minimum premiere seemed to suit the piece which is a mixture of pop song, blues, vaudeville sketches, and a special kind of out of sync melody that is uniquely Blitzstein.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks in a nightcourt in Steeltown, U.S.A. A young prostitute has been picked up along with Steeltown’s leading citizens the Liberty Committee, a puppet organization set up by Mr. Mister (the symbol of capitalism). Through these flashbacks we see who the real whores are. It is the Liberty Committee representing education, the arts, medicine, the press, etc. who have sold out to Mr. Mister for security that are the true prostitutes. This rather serious message is packed in a work that is both entertaining and provoking.
Described by Virgil Thomson as “the most appealing operatic socialism since Louise,” we know that with its message and structure we can see the influence of Kurt Weill and Bert Brecht (to whom the piece is dedicated), but with its sharply humorous text and parodistic tunes it remains a milestone in American Musical Theater. – John Hall
