The Cradle Will Rock on Stage Videos - West End

On tonight's episode of MOM, 'A Taco Bowl and a Tubby Seamstress', Christy is concerned that she and Bonnie might lose their apartment when Bonnie locks horns with the tough new building owner, Rita (Patti LuPone).

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to 'The Birds,' and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's 'The Cradle Will Rock.' Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson. 

Today in 1938, The Cradle Will Rock opened at the Windsor Theatre. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman. The show was recorded and released on seven 78-rpm discs in 1938, making it the first cast album recording. Following the impromptu opening and a brief run at the Venice Theatre (later renamed the New Century Theatre) in July 1937, the production reopened on January 3, 1938, at the Windsor Theatre under the auspices of the new Mercury Theatre Company. It played a total of 108 performances.