THEATER NOTES : Rockin’ Around the ‘Cradle’

The first cast recording of an L.A. 99-seat musical revival has hit the racks: a CD of “The Cradle Will Rock,” the 1937 Marc Blitzstein musical, as presented last year by Blank Theatre Co. at the Off Ramp Theatre in Hollywood.

It’s the second first for that show’s recording history--”The Cradle Will Rock” also was the first Broadway musical to receive an original cast album, in 1938.

The new CD is on the Hollywood-based Lockett-Palmer label. Robert McGarity, president of Lockett-Palmer, is an Ovation Award voter, as is the show’s and Blank’s director, Daniel Henning.

McGarity saw “The Cradle Will Rock,” which will be eligible for next year’s Ovations. He liked it. The show was recorded Nov. 4-5, less than two months after its Sept. 16 opening. Blank contributed a small fraction of the production costs and will participate to the same extent in any profits.

So far only 1,000 copies are out there, but they’re available in major cities throughout the United States and in London. It’s out only on CD--Henning said he had to buy his mother a CD player for Christmas so she could hear her son’s work.

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MUSICAL CHAIRS: A number of “Miss Saigon” ticket holders have received letters asking them to please send the tickets back, so they can be exchanged for “comparable seat locations.” The letters, from Center Theatre Group, don’t offer much of an explanation: “Due to recent production requirements for ‘Miss Saigon,’ it is necessary to relocate some of our subscribers.”

No, this does not mean that the helicopter will soon land in the audience in an effect designed to top the falling chandelier in “Phantom.” It simply means that after the show began moving in at the newly reconfigured theater in early January, it was decided that the orchestra pit wasn’t big enough, and the front row of seats had to be removed to make room.

For most ticket holders, this simply means that they’ll sit one row behind their original seats. But for 46 people at each performance, the changes are more complicated. One row, L, is a short row because of areas for wheelchairs. And, of course, some of those displaced from the back row had to be accommodated farther forward.

A theater spokesman said that the chosen 46 will receive house seats or unsold or returned seats, all at “excellent locations.” Anyone who disagrees with that description will be handled “on an individual basis.”