The Cradle Will Rock is John Doyle’s staging of the rarely-produced labor musical at Classic Stage Company. Marc Blitzstein’s legendary pro-union tuner is more famous for the circumstances of its premiere than the actual show. In 1937, the government-sponsored Federal Theater Project pulled funds for the production, directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. At the last minute, the company had to find another theater and the actors had to perform in the aisles since their union forbade their appearing on stage. (These backstage events are depicted in Tim Robbins’ 1999 film of the same title.) The result was an electric moment in the history of American theater. That said, Blitzstein’s script and score are political cartoons and agitprop, and Doyle’s intimate staging adds a spark of spontaneity but does not deepen the thin characters or repetitive plot.
Doyle has the company dressed as factory workers (Ann Hould-Ward designed the proletarian duds). They are putting on the show about the sinister magnate Mister Mister (an almost inaudible David Garrison) crushing efforts by Larry Foreman (a steely Tony Yazbeck) to unionize Steeltown USA. Blitzstein criticizes each segment of Steeltown society—the church, press, arts, university, medicine, etc.— for knuckling under to Mister with the same metaphor of prostitution. Mister Mister and his pompous wife Mrs. Mister (funny Sally Ann Triplett) throw wads of cash at stick figures with caricaturist names like Dr. Specialist, Reverend Salvation, and Editor Daily, and they fold like card tables to his despotic demands. Laura Pulver and Rema Webb provide pathos in emotional renditions of “Nickel Under the Foot” and “Joe Worker,” but this Cradle is mostly an interesting curio rather than a gripping human musical.
