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Patti LuPone Stars in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock

May. 05, 2014

Patti LuPone Stars in Marc Blitzstein’s <em>The Cradle Will Rock</em>

Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 musical satire The Cradle Will Rock is presented on May 19 in a one-night-only benefit performance for New York’s The Acting Company, starring two-time Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone. Lonny Price directs, Michael Barrett is music director, and LuPone recreates the role of Moll, which she performed with The Acting Company in the 1980s and which led to her first Olivier Award.

The Cradle Will Rock, Blitzstein’s musical allegory of corruption and corporate greed, was first developed by Acting Company co-founder John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles in 1937. This month's staged concert performance begins with archival footage of Houseman recounting the famous story of how he, Welles, and Blitzstein defied the federal government’s attempt to shut down the original production. 

Set in fictional Steeltown, USA, Blitzstein's allegory of corporate corruption and greed pits Larry Foreman, who is trying to unionize the town's workers, against rapacious steel tycoon Mr. Mister and a group of prominent anti-union agitators. The good-hearted prostitute Moll and down-and-out Harry Druggist get caught up in the struggle, which culminates in the workers' rising up in a passionate finale. Blitzstein’s rousing score blends arias and recitative with popular song, jazz, chorales, and marches.

“Cradle is an amazing piece of theater, a legendary piece of theater history and a show that is still relevant today,” said Ms. LuPone. “Blitzstein described it as part Gilbert and Sullivan, part Brecht, part Weill but it also included popular song styles of the time.”

For more information on Marc Blitzstein, please visit eamdc.com.

Visit theactingcompany.org for details on the production.

Marc Blitzstein
The Cradle Will Rock (1937)
a play in music
libretto (Eng) by Marc Blitzstein
for 5 mezzo-sopranos, alto, tenor, 5 baritones, 2 bass-baritones, 3 basses, male octet and chorus
1(pic).0.2(1.bcl).0.asax(cl).tsax(cl)-0.2.1(tenor-bass).0-timp.perc-pno.acc-gtr(banjo, Hawaiian gtr or pedal steel gtr)-str
[optional: bugles (trumpets or flugelhorns), fifes (piccolos), side drums]
120’

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