LuPone will play Moll, the role that led to her 1985 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, an award that also honored her performance in the original London cast of Les Miserables. The Broadway favorite will be joined by Acting Company alumni spanning its 41 years: Randle Mell, David Schramm, Tom Robbins, Henry Stram, Brian Reddy, Casey Biggs, Mary Lou Rosato, Charles Shaw-Robinson, Derek Smith, Pamela Nyberg, Fred Arsenault and Suzy Kohane.
Lonny Price will direct the one-night-only event; Michael Barrett will again serve as musical director and play the score as he did in the 1980’s production.
"Cradle is an amazing piece of theater, a legendary piece of theater history and a show that is still relevant today,” LuPone said in a statement. “Blitzstein described it as part Gilbert and Sullivan, part Brecht, part Weill but it also included popular song styles of the time.”
Via archival footage, John Houseman, press notes state, will "open the May 19 performance telling how he, Orson Welles and Marc Blitzstein overcame the federal government’s attempted shutdown of the piece when someone in Congress concluded that the material was antiestablishment." Houseman repeated that story at the beginning of each performance of his 1980’s Acting Company production both in New York and at London’s Old Vic.
“The Cradle Will Rock, set in ‘Steeltown, USA’ focuses on the efforts of the town's workers to combat a greedy businessman who controls the town's factory, press, church and social organization,” stated Margot Harley, The Acting Company producer and co-founder. “I know that audiences will thrill to it as they have in the past. It is first-rate theater and our cast of Broadway regulars will find even richer meanings today.” Tickets will go on sale next month; information on benefit tickets including dinner with LuPone and the cast is available from (212) 258-3111.
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Founded by John Houseman, Margot Harley, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, David Schramm and David Ogden Stiers in 1972, The Acting Company has toured 138 productions to 49 states and 10 foreign countries earning a Tony for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards.
