The Cradle Will Rock

C+

One wonders whether Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 musical about greed, corruption and anti-unionism in Steeltown, USA would have survived until today if not for the headline-grabbing circumstances of its birth. After the Federal Theater Project pulled the plug four days before it was supposed to open, producer John Houseman and director Orson Welles found a vacant theater where they presented it with the composer playing the piano onstage while the actors performed from locations in the audience. Now CSC is presenting a revival that gives it the minimalist John Doyle (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Carmen Jones) treatment with nine of the ten actors playing more than one role and four of them — Ken Barnett (Fun Home), Benjamin Eakely (She Loves Me), Ian Lowe (Nikolai & the Others) and Kara Mikula (Allegro) —  taking turns as pianist. Doyle’s simple design has an upright piano and assorted metal drums and barrels along one of the shorter walls of the theater. Wires from all around the theater lead to a telephone pole on this wall. The audience is seated along the other three walls with no one more than five rows from the stage. Doyle has assembled an excellent cast, led by Tony Yazbeck (On the Town, The Beast in the Jungle) as labor leader Larry Foreman and as Harry Druggist. Lara Pulver (Gypsy, West End) as The Moll and Sally Ann Triplett (Carrie, The Last Ship) as Mrs. Mister are standouts, but all the others — Eddie Cooper (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui), David Garrison (I Do! I Do!, Wicked), Rema Webb (Escape to Margaritaville) and the four listed above as pianists — are also very good. Ann Hould-Ward's (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Carmen Jones) monochromatic costumes are apt. Even though the story, very much a product of its time, comes across as dated, the underlying themes remain all too relevant today. For me the weakest link was Blitzstein’s music which sounded like Weill on an off day. If you want to see an historic period piece, you may well enjoy it. I found myself wishing that Doyle had just recreated the original, with the actors performing from the audience. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

NOTE: CSC no longer hands out paper programs. I urge you to go their website in advance to download the program and either print it or download it to your smartphone. Also, be aware that seats in Row A are armless.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

D+

The election of our current president has led to a glut of productions of this parable of fascism and corruption during the rise of Hitler; this version at Classic Stage Company is the fourth in New York this year. Since my track record with Brecht is not good — I will admit somewhat shamefacedly that I have never really enjoyed a Brecht play — it was probably a mistake for me even to get a ticket. However, hope springs eternal and I was curious to see what CSC director John Doyle would do with the play and how Raul Esparza (Company, The Homecoming) an actor I have always enjoyed, would fare in the title role. I should have stayed home. I found the production wanting in just about every respect. First there is the play itself. I did not think transposing Hitler’s rise to the story of a gangster fighting for control of the Chicago cauliflower trust was an apt metaphor. Lest we miss the connections, an announcer bursts in periodically to tell us what event in Germany corresponds to what is happening onstage. Secondly I had a problem with George Tabori’s translation, which alternated between stilted verse and gangster talk. Thirdly, I was puzzled by Doyle’s ugly set which fences off the back of the stage to represent some vague industrial space with workmen’s lockers, helmets hanging on the wall and bright lights shined at the audience periodically. (Regular readers of this blog know how I feel about shining bright lights in the audience’s eyes.) The actors periodically drag chairs and folding tables from this back room to and from the main performing space. The costumes by Ann Hould-Ward (Passion, Allegro) offered little help in defining the characters. I never did figure out why actors donned welder’s helmets from time to time. The quality of the acting varied. I thought Eddie Cooper (This Ain't No Disco) as Roma and Christopher Gurr (All the Way) as Dogsboro/Dullfeet stood out. The other actors were George Abud (The Band's Visit), Elizabeth A. Davis (Allegro), Omozé Idehenre, Mahira Kakkar (The Winter's Tale) and Thom Sesma (Pacific Overtures). As for Raul Esparza, he coped reasonably well with a role that was not a natural fit. The first act builds rather slowly. In my favorite scene, Ui hires an actor to teach him how to walk, talk and sit. After intermission, the audience was a bit smaller. The mood darkens in the second act and we start hearing faint recorded shouts of “Sieg Heil!” in the background. The transformation of this shout to “Lock her up!” in the final moments was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. While a cautionary tale about how fascism develops is certainly welcome today, I don’t feel this is a very effective one. Running time: two hours five minutes including intermission. NOTE: CSC no longer distributes paper programs so you may want to download the digital version on your smartphone before you arrive.