The Cradle Will Rock

Play in music in ten scenes

Music, lyrics, and book by Marc Blitzstein

April 29 – May 2, 2021

Dept. of Music, Dramatic Vocal Arts
Katherine Skovira, Music Director

The Cradle Will Rock hits us with an intense urgency! Fusing parodies of Bach and Beethoven with jazz and pop music forms, this savage powerhouse musical confronts the all-American issues of unrestrained capitalism, racism, corruption, and bigotry. With its composer, Marc Blitzstein, at the piano, the 1937 premiere was itself an act of defiance, against censorship, an answer to Bertolt Brecht’s blazing suggestion: “Why don’t you write a piece about all kinds of prostitution – the press, the church, the courts, the arts, the whole system?”

Presented under license from European American Music Corporation on behalf of Christopher Davis and the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.