BLITZSTEIN'S 'CRADLE' ROCKS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

At the end of ``The Cradle Will Rock'' at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, cast members flip over their cardboard signs. Pro-union messages are transformed to statements about abortion, HMOs and human rights. The time is now, director Ellen Geer is clearly saying. Keep that cradle swinging.

It's a smart image to leave for an audience considering how dated Marc Blitzstein's message-heavy operetta is starting to feel. The flipped signs seem as cagey an effort to give ``Cradle'' a contemporary spin as any. Geer's cast, meanwhile, plows right through with earnest, angry energy and some rather bawdy choreography. This is no classic, but it's kind of a family heirloom.

Will Geer, the Theatricum's founder and Ellen Geer's father, was in Orson Welles' famed Federal Theatre Project production of ``Cradle'' in 1937, an event that - as film director Tim Robbins demonstrated - was far more interesting than the product Blitzstein actually put on stage. With the government getting skittish over the play's messages, the FTP, actors and musicians unions tried to shut down the production, barring the cast and crew from the theater they had booked. Undeterred, Welles and producer John Houseman packed a piano into a van and headed uptown, eventually settling into the Venice Theater. Even without props, sets or lights, ``The Cradle Will Rock'' became an embodiment of the ideas it was trying to get across. Blitzstein's name was made.

Never intended to be lavish, the work fits easily into the bucolic grounds of the Theatricum, where Geer and her company attack it with energy and vinegar. If the spirit of Geer activism hangs over this production, it's hardly surprising. Will's son, Thad, plays Mr. Mister, the corrupt steel mill owner of Steeltown U.S.A. (the same role played in 1937 by his father). Ellen Geer also takes a role as the outraged sister of a framed worker.

Mr. Mister is using every page of his dirty tricks manual to quell a labor uprising instigated by one Larry Forman (played by Aaron Hendry). While he buys the newspaper and greases Editor Daily (Richard Sherrell), Mrs. Mister (Gillian Doyle) takes care of the clergy, ensuring that Sunday mass speeches are appropriately pro or anti-war depending on the current need for steel. Blue-collar workers are strong-armed, immigrants are set up, and artists are swept into the Misters' newly formed Liberty Committee. Even a prostitute named Moll (Melora Marshall) can barely make enough to feed herself, and ends up in night court.

Blitzstein is no Brecht, even if ``The Cradle Will Rock'' is dedicated to the ``Threepenny Opera'' composer. The satire is so broad and the characters are such archetypes that even under Ellen Geer's cheeky approach, the work comes across as preachy more than compelling.

Still, a hard-working cast keeps the flame stoked. Doyle's Mrs. Mister has a wonderful decadence, vamping it up over the content of Sunday mass speeches with the Rev. Salvation (Steve Matt). Hendry makes an appealing rabble rouser as agitator Forman, the play's conscience, and the man who sings the play's title song.

Pianist Louis Durra leads a three-person on-stage band. For a non-amped operetta like ``Cradle,'' the acoustics are excellent at the Theatricum, easily one of the city's most pleasant outdoor theater venues.

Through September at the Theaticum, the mood turns political. Bring a sign. You'll fit right in.

``THE CRADLE WILL ROCK''

Where: Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.

When: Plays in repertory Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 30. Call for specific days and times.

Tickets: $8 to $20. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three stars

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Photo:

Thad Geer, center, as Mr. Mister confronts union organizers in ``The Cradle Will Rock'' at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.