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.

Escape to Margaritaville

C-

Maybe it was the long, cold winter that made the idea of a vicarious escape to a Caribbean island for a couple of hours seem irresistible. So, when this jukebox musical of Jimmy Buffett songs turned up on TDF, I decided to take a chance on it. When I arrived at the Marquis Theatre, many audience members were wearing tropical shirts and quite a few were sipping margaritas from the lobby bar. (I reluctantly abstained so as not to dull my critical faculties.) The tropical theme of the scenic design overflowed into the auditorium. The show itself is a collage of 29 Buffett songs strung together by a simplistic, thoroughly predictable book by Greg Garcia (“My Name is Earl”) and Mike O’Malley ("Shameless"). There are sporadic efforts to be timely with mention of Sheryl Sandberg and Russian internet interference. The integration of the lyrics and the action ranges from clever to clunky. Buffett’s music has slightly more variety than I expected, but the songs became a blur long before reaching #29. The saving grace is that they are performed by an attractive, talented cast. Tully (Paul Alexander Nolan; Bright Star) is the resident singer/guitarist at a seedy island resort run by Marley (Rema Webb; The Color Purple). Brick (Eric Peterson; School of Rock), is the dim but kindhearted bartender. J.D. (Don Sparks; Take Me Out) is the one-eyed geezer who regales bar patrons with tall tales. Jamal (Andre Ward; Something Rotten!) is the dishwasher/handyman with one arm in a sling. Among the arriving guests are Tammy (Lisa Howard; It Shoulda Been You), on a bachelorette trip before her impending wedding to an unappreciative lout, and her best friend Rachel (Alison Luff; Les Miserables), an uptight environmental scientist interested in the island’s volcanic soil. By evening’s end three couples will pair off and you don’t need an advanced degree to figure out who. Walt Spangler’s (Tuck Everlasting) set and Paul Tazewell’s (Hamilton) costumes are appropriately garish. The highlight of Kelly Devine’s (Come from Away) choreography is a lively tap number for a group of insurance agent ghosts (Don’t ask!). Director Christopher Ashley (Come from Away, Memphis) has included a few nice touches that include flying effects and dancing clouds. It all goes down very easily, probably even more so with a few margaritas. I’m still not sure whether anything this mindless can fill a large theater at Broadway prices. A shorter version would be perfect as cruise ship entertainment. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Violet ****

What a pleasure it is to attend a musical where the music is the main attraction! This intimate musical theater piece originally produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1997 has finally made it to Broadway in a thrilling production that shows off the beautiful score by Jeanine Tesori to full advantage. Sutton Foster is amazing as a 25-year-old North Carolina farm woman whose face had been horribly scarred in a freak accident at the age of 13. (Her father’s axe flew off the handle while he was chopping wood.) The time is 1964, months after the Civil Rights Act became law. She is taking a bus to Tulsa, fully believing that her scar will be healed by a TV evangelist there. Along the way she meets two soldiers recently out of boot camp. Monty (Colin Donnell) is a charming skirt-chaser about to leave for Vietnam. Flick (Joshua Henry), as a black man, knows what it means to be an outsider. After Violet recruits them for a poker game at a rest stop, they both take a shine to her and the three decide to spend their overnight in Memphis together. Violet’s visit to Tulsa leads to a different kind of healing than she hoped for. Tesori’s score is a wonderful melange of country, blues and gospel that, in my humble opinion, outshines any other currently on Broadway. The lyrics and book by Brian Crawley are also fine, but I did have occasional trouble making out words. The excellent supporting cast includes Emerson Steele as the young Violet, Alexander Gemignani as her father, Ben Davis as the preacher, Annie Golden as both an old lady on the bus and a aged hotel hooker, and Rema Webb as the lead singer in the gospel choir. The onstage orchestra was excellent. Leigh Silverman’s direction skillfully blends past and present. David Zinn’s set and Clint Ramos’s costumes work well. I was afraid that such an intimate show would be lost in Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre, but it is not. It was a thoroughly bracing evening. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes; no intermission.