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West Bloomfield (248) 538.6000 HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT 33292 Westi2 Mile Farmington Hills (248) 489-9777 Serving whitefish, lamb shank, pastitsio and moussaka IIIIIIII MIN MI IIIIIIII Mill 1111111 I Receive 1 1110/ 1 , 1111/1 SIM mg n ": ILI /1U I I i 1/21 2000 82 Entire Bill not to go with any other offer with coupon Expires 12/30/2000 me. Ems •in eviews I I Writer/director Tim Robbins' new film, Cradle Will Rock (Rated R), opens nationwide in theaters today. The movie (which the film proclaims at its begin- ning is "mostly true") portrays the art and theater world of 1930s New York City. Cradle Will Rock is a tapestry of dif- ferent stories. Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) — whose murals of autoworkers grace the Detroit Institute of Arts — to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. Italian propagan- dist Margherita Sarfatti, a Jewish woman who is a former mistress of Mussolini's and a ghostwriter for Hearst newspaper articles for the Italian dicta- tor — raises funds for the fascists by selling art masterpieces to Rockefeller and his peers. A 22-year-old Orson Welles (Angus Macfayden) — with the help of his friend and producer John Houseman (Cary Elwes) — directs his Federal Theater group in an infamous production of The Cradle Will Rock. The man behind The Cradle Will Rock was Jewish composer Marc Blitzstein, who is portrayed in the film by Hank Azaria. The Jewish actor recently starred as Mitch Albom in the TV production of Tuesdays With Morrie. Blitzstein, notes Azaria, was "arguably one of the most important - American composers, although history has relegated him to a lesser-known sta- tus than his artistic equals. This, along with a turbulent personal life, con- tributed to his image as somewhat of a sad figure. "He had as much talent as his best friends, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland," says Azaria, "but never achieved the kind of fame they did." According to Show Tunes by Steven Suskin, published this year by Oxford University Press, Blitzstein, born in 1905 to a prosperous banking family in Philadelphia, could play piano by ear at age 3. At 16, he performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Philharmonic, and at 19 wrote his first theater score. At 21, Blitzstein moved to Europe, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger (Aaron Copland's teacher) and Arnold Schoenberg. Returning to the United States in the late 1920s, Blitzstein spent the early years of the Depression developing his 0Cary Elwes (John Houseman), Hank Azaria (Marc Blitzstein) and Angus Macfayden (Orson Welles) in Tim Robbins' "Cradle Will Rock." Susan Sarandon as the Italian Jew Margherita Sarfatti, a former mistress of Mussolini's who raises funds for fascists by selling art masterpieces to Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack, right) and his peers. left-wing tendencies and a strong inter- est in the potential of popular music as an instrument of social message. In 1935, Blitzstein played a sketch — including "Nickel Under the Foot" (a song of prostitution) — for the visit- ing German playwright Berthold Brecht, who suggested that Blitzstein write a full-length theater piece in song, showing all members of the establish- ment as prostitutes. Blitzstein chose as his hero of the play a union organizer in Steeltown, U.S.A. (the composer drew inspiration- from -the riots by autowork- ers in Flint, Mich., that had occurred in 1936). The play, The Cradle Will Rock, was produced by the Federal Theater Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under the supervision of John Houseman (well known in later years for his tough Harvard law professor in The Paper Chase) and 22-year-old direc- tor Orson Welles (the famed actor and director who later made Citizen Kane). But the government agency became nervous after the first preview of Cradle, and, with censorship in the air, sus- pended all new WPA activities "to facil- iate budget cuts." On the scheduled opening night, the doors of the sold-out Maxine Elliott Theatre were padlocked. However, 800 people marched 20 blocks uptown to the Venice Theatre, where — two hours late — the. production began. Actors' Equity had forbidden its members to appear, but half the cast showed up, delivering their lines from their seats in the theater while Blitzstein and Welles played and narrated from the stage. The Cradle Will Rock continued at the Venice for two weeks. Welles and Houseman left the WPA to begin their Mercury Theatre Company, with Blitzstein as resident composer.