STAGE REVIEW : The Working Man Triumphs in ‘Cradle’

In these days when we’re told that unionism has gone the way of the 10-cent cup of coffee and the bosses are firmly in control, along comes CalArts staging Marc Blitzstein’s opera on the triumph of the working man, “The Cradle Will Rock.” The last in the three play “CalArts In Town” festival at the Morgan Wixson Theater, Robert Benedetti’s production is full of spunky college students who you’d think wouldn’t know a Wobbly from Pee-wee Herman. Nonsense. Many of the voices may crash and burn after the middle octave, but this show is alive.

Actually, what with the Writers Guild and Actors union members walking the picket line right now, a union fight might not seem at all archaic to the cast. There’s certainly the feeling of one going on off-stage as this saga of Steeltown, U.S.A. unfolds. The seldom-seen opera (really a hard-edged, satiric operetta in the Brecht-Weill vein) shifts all focus away from organizing-the-workers business to Steeltown’s elite “Liberty Committee,” led by factory boss Mr. Mister (Matthew Tomlanovich).

Skewering the rich is just, but it’s also the best way to build your comedy. Orson Welles and John Houseman knew that when they premiered “The Cradle Will Rock” in 1937, during the last, great days of the Federal Theatre Project. Blitzstein strings his satire out on a line, needling money-grubbing reverends here (Sean Doherty), pouncing on bought-off journalists there (Craig Koller) and tying it all together with a dynamic, provocative score and a libretto that combines poetry and polemics. If you ever wondered what well the San Francisco Mime Troupe dips into for inspiration, look no farther (a recent Troupe play was called “Steeltown”).

The irony is that it’s the Liberty Committee that’s under arrest in the night court for an illegal, union-busting assembly. As they wait for Mr. Mister to bail them out, Moll, the tale’s innocent (Kristie Dale Sanders) consoles Harry Druggist (Peter Duschenes). They’re both arrested unjustly, of course, and it looks like it’s going to take an act of God, or of a hero, to get them out.

Blitzstein flashes from the night court back to scenes of the committee members’ lives, as well as the episode that crushed Harry--the work’s only bow to melodrama. Funniest, and most pointed of all (given the artistic collective spirit of the Federal Theatre and the avant-garde consciousness of CalArts) is a scene where two desperate artists will do anything for their new patron, Mrs. Mister--even joining the committee. Art’s for art’s sake--forget politics.

When Larry, the plant foreman, enters the night court (Aaron Alpert), he is all the union message we need to send the opera to its giddy conclusion--even if Alpert, like nearly all the men (Koller’s the notable exception), is vocally constrained.

The women come off much better, especially Sanders, Tamar A. Fortgang as Mrs. Mister and Judith Hawking as Ella. The score presents a powerful challenge, and, in the end, it comes through (assisted by a magnificent, uncredited piano accompaniment). So do the characters, more textured than standard agit-prop.

In a tongue-in-cheek recreation of the show’s opening night performance (the Feds shut down the theater, so Welles and crew marched off to another house), the audience is led to their seats from the backstage area. It looks like a grimy sweatshop (making Kristin Appleton’s scene design with Bridget LaFortune’s lights all the more magical) and the point is made quietly. Now that we’ve seen the precocious version of “The Cradle Will Rock,” how about some L.A. pros taking it on?

Performances are at 2627 W. Pico Bl., Santa Monica, today, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. Tickets: $6; (818) 362-2315 or (818) 367-5507.