Epilogue: An American Audience for the “People’s Theatre”

Abstract

In 1999, Tim Robbins created and directed the Hollywood version of The Cradle Will Rock. Boasting a well-known cast of actors, including Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Cherry Jones, John Turturro, Bill Murray, John Cusack, Joan Cusack, and Hank Azaria, the film documented one of the most oft told and exciting stories of American theatre history—the build up to the production that would become one of the clearest demonstrations of censorship in the United States, lead to the resignations of John Houseman and Orson Welles, and rock the foundations of the FTP. The legendary tale involves armed security guards blocking off a theatre, a determined cast resisting the powerful combined forces of their own unions and the U.S. government, a crowd—intent on seeing this dangerous production—marching along the streets of New York City, and even a piano on a rented truck circling the block for hours in the hopes that a theatre would become available for the show. The Cradle Will Rock is frequently held up as a pivotal moment in the history of American theatre, and serves as an illustration of the many reasons that theatre practitioners should remain wary of government involvement in the creation of theatre; moreover, it is frequently pinpointed as the catalyst that brought about the downfall of the FTP.

We have played, I think I am safe in saying, the widest variety of American audiences that any theatre has ever played.¹

—Hallie Flanagan