Photo Flash: Raul Esparza, Judy Kuhn & More in Encores! Off-Center's THE CRADLE WILL ROCK!

Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, the inaugural show of New York City Center's new Encores! Off-Center series will play for five performances, beginning tonight at City Center, and running through July 13. The production stars Danny Burstein, Eisa Davis, Raúl Esparza, Peter Friedman, Aidan Gemme, Judy Kuhn, David Margulies, Martin Moran, Michael Park, Robert Petkoff, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Anika Noni Rose, Matthew Saldívar and Henry Stram. Check out a first look at the production below!

The show is directed by Sam Gold and choreographed by Chase Brock; Chris Fenwick is the music director. Jeanine Tesori is the Encores! Off Center artistic director. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all and to younger audiences, the majority of tickets are $25.

The Cradle Will Rock, with music, lyrics and book by Marc Blitzstein, is a powerful political satire and an extraordinary piece of theater history. Set against the backdrop of a steel strike and peopled with fat-cat capitalists, brutal policemen, heroic union organizers, and a warm-hearted prostitute, Blitzstein's 1937 battle hymn to the proletariat feels remarkably fresh.

The show was developed in 1937 with funds from the Federal Theater Project, a branch of the WPA. The original production, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down four days before opening. Officially, it was shut down due to WPA budget cuts, but many cited the show's pro-union themes as the government's impetus for its closing.

Photos by: Joan Marcus