During his life, composer and lyricist Marcus Blitzstein (1905-1964) was best known for his 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock, whose pro-union message got the show shut down by the Works Progress Administration. However, since his death, Blitzstein has become better known for his English translations of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s seminal German musical plays. He also wrote an opera, Regina. An openly gay man who nevertheless married a woman, Blitzstein was beaten to death outside a gay bar in Martinique.