The Cradle Will Rock at Frank Theatre

The Cradle Will Rock at Frank Theatre

When: March 15 - April 7, 2019
At: Gremlin Theatre
Running Time: 90 min, no intermish

About:
"A play in music written in 1937, The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein is set in Steeltown, USA. Mr. Mister, the corporate magnate, has bought up (or paid off) every sector of the community: the church, the press, the university, the artists. A prostitute arrives in Steeltown, and is immediately picked up for soliciting. Hauled into night court, she is befriended by a derelict pharmacist, who explains that all the others (who have been hauled in mistakenly) are as guilty of selling themselves as she is. Through flashback and song, the piece illustrates how each of the civic leaders sold out to Mr. Mister, with the exception of Larry Foreman, a union organizer who is attempting to get the whole town to organize."

What We Thought:
The Cradle Will Rock is possibly best known as the pro-union show produced by the Federal Theatre Project in 1937 that was closed before it opened due to the incendiary subject matter. It's heavily symbolic, as demonstrated by the character names: Mr. Mister, Reverend Salvation, Harry Druggist. Frank artistic director Wendy Knox leans into the unreality, with exaggerated performances, makeup, costumes, and two-dimensional scenery.

Love & Information at Frank Theatre

Since I caught the very last performance of Frank Theatre's Love and Information, I won't go in-depth about it. But I did want to give a little shout-out, because the show was great! Frank Theatre and director Wendy Knox have a strong record of choosing challenging plays to perform, and this one is particularly interesting. It's the latest play from Caryl Churchill (Cloud Nine, Top Girls, and many more), and just premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2012.

In a short pre-show introduction, Knox informed us that the script for Love and Information, which includes 57 scenes in 90 minutes, does not include settings or stage directions, and the lines aren't assigned to any characters. Thus, each production will be different.

Frank's version was wonderful, with a great cast of 14 performers playing over 100 roles in scenes as short as one line. (Also, gotta love a 90 minute-no intermission show!)

Now that I've seen the show here, I've started to look at writeups of other productions. Apparently, the Royal Court production included scenes in a steam room and on exercise bikes. The same director, James Macdonald, staged the first New York production, and there's a nice story in the New York Times about the set design for that show. If you've seen Frank's show or not, it's an interesting piece to read about.

And one more plug: this is the last show of Frank's season, but keep an eye out for their next season to be announced. They choose really interesting material and are definitely worth keeping an eye out for!