1930s Labor Hit Makes a Comeback at Petaluma’s Mercury Theater

Contact: Eileen Morris, eileenmorris7@gmail.com; 707-776-7638

1930s Labor Hit Makes a Comeback at Petaluma’s Mercury Theater

For the first show of its inaugural season, Mercury Theater in Petaluma presents, “Pins and Needles,” an unjustly forgotten piece of musical theater history that speaks powerfully to the present day.

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Petaluma’s Mercury Theater is proud to open its inaugural season with “Pins and Needles,” a musical revue by composer Harold Rome and a crew of Depression Era scribes first performed by members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1937.

With a modern day cast of 12, the theater has culled the best songs and sketches from the revue’s ever-changing four-year Broadway run. These include songs like “Doin’ the Reactionary,””It’s Better with a Union Man,”  “Sitting on Your Status Quo,”  “One Big Union for Two,” and “Call it Unamerican.”

Background on “Pins and Needles”

The show was the brainchild of Louis Shaffer, the ILGWU’s cultural director. After establishing arts, drama, instrumental, choral and educational programs for his members, he thought even bigger, and enlisted the help of composer Harold Rome to produce a show. Rome wrote the music and worked as the rehearsal accompanist and music director. Cast members worked all day at their factory jobs and rehearsed in the evenings, learning to sing, dance and act. Their songs and sketches spoke to the dreams of working people on the shop floor, at home and as citizens. With laughs, they skewered those who would hold workers back. 

The union bought the Princess Theater and renamed it the Labor Stage, opening “Pins and Needles” there on November 27, 1937. 

The show was an immediate hit and played to sold-out houses for the length of its run. Walter Winchell called it “one of the best musical shows of the year,” and the New York Post observed “It manages to say serious things lightly and to indict with a song and a smile.”

The show toured nationally and internationally and gave a performance in 1938 at the White House, where FDR declared “Call it Unamerican” his favorite song. 

Since its closing there have been few productions. In the 1970s, Barbra Streisand recorded many of the songs. Rome went on to write several Broadway shows, including “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.” He also penned campaign songs for almost every Democratic candidate on the Eastern Seaboard.  “Pins and Needles” for Rome, “was the amateur pumpkin that turned into a golden Broadway coach.”

“Pins and Needles” at Mercury

Music Director Jared Emerson-Johnson and Stage Director Eileen Morris elected not to update any of the material to modern days. “They say history rhymes,” says Emerson-Johnson. “Those rhymes are much more apparent when you don’t modernize, when you don’t turn JP Morgan into Elon Musk or Mussolini into Putin.” The show’s one important nod to the current day is that Alejandro Murguía, former Poet Laureate of San Francisco, has provided Spanish translation in several songs, reflecting the importance of Hispanic people in today’s labor movement.

Tickets

“Pins and Needles” opens Labor Day weekend running Saturday, August 30 through September 14.” Tickets are available online at www.mercurytheater.org and are priced at $35 General, $30 Senior, $20 Students. All tickets for the Labor Day performance are $10, and union members enjoy a discount at every performance. Mercury Theater is housed in the Cinnabar Theater building at 3333 Petaluma Boulevard North, Petaluma.

Dates.

Pins and Needles runs:

7:30 p.m., Saturday, August 30

2 p.m., Sunday, August 31

2 p.m., Monday, September 1 (Labor Day)

7:30 p.m., Friday, September 5

7:30 p.m., Saturday, September 6

2 p.m., Sunday, September 7

7:30 p.m., Friday, September 12

7:30 p.m., Saturday, September 13

2 p.m., Sunday, September 14