Recent viewing: Cradle Will Rock

Now and again an actor or director with clout does a pet project, the kind of project LaLaLand would never embrace without such star backing. For Tim Robbins it was to bring to the screen the story behind an unusual and controversial "labor musical" created in the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. The Brechtian play is The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein. The film is Cradle Will Rock, a story that puts the play's troubled creation in social and political context, a story filled with the human dramas of those involved, rich and poor alike. The end result is just short of a masterpiece. Only some miscasting (John Cusack as Rockefeller) compromises the production. But nothing compromises the great spirit of this film. It's inspiring -- and sad -- at the same time. (Sad because, well, here we go again.)

DVD at Amazon

About the original musical:

Cradle Will Rock Website

Libretto

On a lesser scale, this reminds of me of the controversy here in the late 1970s around my labor play 1934: Blood and Roses, which also became controversial, even at a national level after NPR did a story on the local controversy. The State Fair didn't initially approve of a performance on Labor Day, of all times, because their judging committee found the play to be "pro-union". Duh. However, they eventually caved and the play got done. I should say that I was commissioned to write the script, which was my contribution. After that the Portland Labor Players II, directed by Melinda Pittman, took the project, toured it, and made it what it became.