Theater 2020 presents Marc Blitstein’s musical masterwork:
BROOKLYN, NY May 8, 2019 – THEATER 2020, Brooklyn Heights’ NY award winning professional theater company is pleased to announce its June 2019 run of the masterwork “THE CRADLE WILL ROCK,” in a limited run of 16 performances (indoors & out) Friday, June 7th – Sunday, June 30th, 2019.
Press is invited beginning Saturday, June 8th at 2:30pm.
Marc Blitzstein’s riveting musical The Cradle will Rock was born in 1937 during the Great Depression. Cradle sings a tale of the downtrodden, the 99%, who ultimately rise together. In Cradle we see artists selling out to the wealthy, healthcare influenced by big money, the press owned by big business, the church controlled by its donors and war encouraged for corporate greed. Sound familiar? Cradle’s genesis, and the events surrounding its opening night, represents a seminal moment in American Musical Theater history. A video of the original producer, John Houseman, describing that amazing opening can be found here: https://youtu.be/_LDb0fn4Uek
Creative team: Director David Fuller, Music Director/Pianist Brian Fitzsousa, Costume Designer Sarah Constable, Choreographer Judith Jarosz, Production Stage Manager Nat DiMario, Assistant Stage Manager Kristina Voznick .
Cast: Desiree Baxter*, Debra Thais Evans*, David Fuller*, Fred Frabotta, Scott Harrison*, Kate Holland*, Zoe Kanter, Ellen Martin, Alex Shafer*, Jeneen Terrana*, Kristofer Thornton*, Hannah Viederman. (*Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association)
Venues: The Great Room at ART NY studios at 138 South Oxford Streetin Brooklyn. Convenient to all trains: B, C, D, G, N, R, Q, 2, 3, 4, 5, and the LIRR.
Cadman Plaza Park War Memorial lawn area atFulton and Tillary Streets in Brooklyn Heights. Subways: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall, N, R to Court Street, A, F to Jay Street, C to High Street.
Dates and Times: Please note the varied dates & times.
Great Room ART NY: Fri. 6/7 8pm, Sat. 6/8@2:30pm, Sun. 6/9@2:30pm, Wed. 6/12 @8pm, Thur. 6/13@8pm, Fri. 6/14@8pm, Wed. 6/19@8pm, Thur. 6/20@8pm, Fri. @6/218pm, (NO PERF SAT & SUN, JUNE 22 & 23!) Wed. 6/26@8pm, Thur. 6/27 @8pm, Fri. 6/28@8pm Sat. 6/29@8pm, Sun. 6/30@8pm.
Cadman Plaza Park, War Memorial lawn. Sat. & Sun. June 15 & 16, both at 6PM. (note early curtain in park) Running time: 120 min.
Tickets and Reservations:
Tickets: $40.00 general, $30.00 senior & students
Credit card purchases through Brown Paper Tickets at th2020cradle.bpt.me
Cash only at the door tickets may be reserved at theater2020@gmail.com
Cadman Plaza Park, all tickets FREE, no reservations required.
Theater 2020 “Visions for a New Millennium”
“Theater 2020 has once again proven that you can easily delight an audience when you have 1,000 times more imagination than funding!” – The Huffington Post
Director’s Note: “THE CRADLE WILL ROCK”
THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, A Musical Of, By and For the People!
Book, Music & Lyrics by Marc Blitzstein, Directed by David Fuller
Musical Director/Pianist Brian Fitzsousa, Choreographer Judith Jarosz
Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle will Rock was born in 1937 during the Great Depression. Cradle sings a tale of the downtrodden, the 99%, who ultimately rise together. In Cradle we see artists selling out to the wealthy, healthcare influenced by big money, the press owned by big business, the church controlled by its donors and war encouraged for corporate greed. Sound familiar? We laugh at the lampooned stereotypes, all the while discovering what our hero Larry Foreman knows: when we work together the “Cradle Will Rock!”
Upon hearing a rendition of the song, A Nickel Under Your Foot, Brecht encouraged Blitzstein: “Why don’t you write a piece about all kinds of prostitution – the press, the church, the courts, the arts, the whole system?” He did and dedicated it to his friend, “to Bert Brecht.”
Blitzstein called Cradle a labor opera, composed in a style falling somewhere between realism, romance, Vaudeville, comic strip, Gilbert & Sullivan, Brecht and Agit Prop. He wrote, “The characters in The Cradle Will Rock are two-dimensional; types, rather than individuals. In a sense they are cartoon characters, larger than life, sometimes even larger than theatre life. The Cradle is thus a kind of modern morality play.”
Cradle’s genesis, and the events surrounding its opening night, represents a seminal moment in American Musical Theater history. A video of the original producer, John Houseman, describing that amazing opening can be found here: https://youtu.be/_LDb0fn4Uek The Cradle Will Rock, with its sharp, witty and sometimes poignant call to arms against oppression, is as timely today as when it was first performed in 1937.
Multi Award winning & nominated (OOBR, NYIT, GLADD awards) producing team of David Fuller & Judith Jarosz
Theater 2020, Inc., Visions for a New Millennium, Brooklyn Heights’ first professional theater company, was founded in 2010 and represents the natural culmination of many years in the performing arts by its Producing Artistic Directors, Judith Jarosz and David Fuller, and its board members. Jarosz has performed, directed, choreographed or produced on Broadway and off, at major regional houses, and the New York City Opera. In her years at the helm of Theater Ten Ten Jarosz produced 49 main stage productions, together with countless cabarets, workshops, readings and special events. Fuller has acted nationwide, directed regionally and in NYC, and his 25-plus years in theater includes six years at the helm of Off Broadway’s Jean Cocteau Repertory, as well as seasons in partnership with Jarosz at Theater Ten Ten. All told, Fuller has produced 64 Off Broadway and NYC Indie Theatre productions, in addition to staged reading and music series, workshops and educational outreach programs. They have together or singularly produced tours of 21 plays and musicals and have been recognized with multiple awards and nominations from many institutions including, The National GLADD awards, OOBR Awards, Nytheatre.com People of the Year, and New York Innovative Theater Awards. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen their work, children, students, adults and seniors.
Our Mission
Theater 2020, Inc., Visions for a New Millennium is dedicated to producing classic and contemporary plays and musicals for a 21st Century audience and to providing a nurturing atmosphere for both emerging artists and seasoned professionals. We are dedicated to reaching out to the community and to producing quality theater at affordable prices, utilizing established professionals and fostering young artists as they emerge into the theatrical mainstream, with a particular emphasis on providing more opportunities for women in theater.
The only professional union theater company based in Brooklyn Heights, Theater 2020 produces everything from classic theater to contemporary satire, with forays into musicals and light opera, making them immediate to modern audiences using both innovative and traditional approaches. We believe live performance is a vital part of a healthy culture and that it is through theater that audiences are engaged dynamically in today’s issues and in perpetual questions of the human condition.
Through our many audience outreach programs, we offer free and deeply discounted tickets because we believe theater must be for everyone, and no one should be deprived of the experience due to economic status. Through our educational initiatives we are firmly committed to the idea that today’s youth is tomorrow’s audience, and we work with educators to provide opportunities for students as interns and assistants.
Theater 2020, Inc. produces in Brooklyn, Manhattan and elsewhere, including the under-served Greene County in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
Malini Singh mcdonald 