In 1937, Orson Welles directed a production of Marc Blitzstein's Brechtian, pro-union operetta The Cradle Will Rock. It was meant to be an elaborate spectacle that climaxed on a stage that actually rocked back and forth; but after a disastrous dress rehearsal, the Federal Theatre Project (which financed the costly affair) shut it down. There were accusations the FTP folded under anti-socialist pressure from the nascent House Un-American Activities Committee. Then, in an ironic turn, Actors' Equity forbade its union actors from performing the show on any Broadway stage. Welles and producer John Houseman responded by walking an entire audience 20 blocks to the Venice Theatre, where the show was performed from the orchestra pit to Blitzstein's single-piano accompaniment. Welles was 22 years old. A year later, he terrified the nation with War of the Worlds; three years after that, he directed the best movie ever made, Citizen Kane. And what have you accomplished in the last five years?

Theater folks needing an object lesson in the value of a director can do no better than the University of Puget Sound's production of Cradle, brilliantly micromanaged by Marilyn Bennett. (I'm told Dr. Bennett has been a "visiting" assistant professor for 10 years. Can somebody please get this lady tenure?) Every detail, from house management to the union posters hanging in the hall to the typeface on the program to the final, post-curtain call stinger has been meticulously planned and integrated.

My girlfriend, who appeared in SPSCC's production a few years ago, tells me the score is diabolically difficult to sing, but I heard few mistakes. Mitch Knottingham is smart and dynamic as a union rabble-rouser. Ricky German and Andrew Kittrell amuse as sellout artists. Mandi Wood and her fellow "professors" indict academia, and Brent Visser both sings and emotes beautifully as a corrupt minister. Frankly, there's not a weak link in a sizeable cast - including Casey Oakes as Mr. Mister, the loathsome robber baron. Oakes could double as Welles himself. Top marks as well to dramaturge Courtney Weller, Mishka Navarre's clarifying costumes, Richard Moore's lighting design and scene designer Kurt Walls - together, they turn an empty stage into an empty stage. Only gradually does the magnitude of this accomplishment dawn on us.

Genuinely rousing and directed to the molecular level, Bennett's Cradle Will Rock is an amazingly unified labor of love.

[Norton Clapp Theatre, The Cradle Will Rock, through Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday plus 2 p.m. Nov. 13, $8.50-$12.50, University of Puget Sound,1500 N. Warner, Tacoma, 273.879.3419.]