During intermission at a recent performance of Finian's Rainbow, I looked into the orchestra pit to find a musician, Wayne Goodman, anticipating Act II as much as I was. Marvelling at Burton Lane's great songs including such classics as “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?,” “Look to the Rainbow,” and “Old Devil Moon,” the trombonist pointed out that this 1947 show with a leprechaun, crock of gold, and three wishes, had real magic in the prescient lyrics by Yip Harburg and book by Harburg and Fred Saidy. Yip Harburg who also wrote The Wizard of Oz with its signature “Over the Rainbow” influenced generations of musicals. So why aren't we talking about Yip Harburg the way we talk about the Gershwins or Irving Berlin? That question may remain a mystery, even as we are awed by this outstanding late '40's entertainment and its first-rate revival at the St. James Theater. Old-fashioned as it seems among so many musicals that play like cabaret revues, this one has a rich story, and resonance for views that prevail today, providing more than a laugh, as when Woody Mahoney (a fine and magnetic Cheyenne Jackson) says that a little yellow paper is better than money-it's credit, or when a bigoted town official says, “My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country.” The Finian of the title (the superb Jim Norton, Tony awarded last season for The Seafarer) arrives in Missitucky, near Fort Knox with his daughter Sharon (a gorgeous red-headed Kate Baldwin), having appropriated the crock of gold from a leprechaun (Christopher Fitzgerald). The ensuing mayhem includes a white man turned black, a green one turned white, a bride accused of witchcraft exonerated, a mute dancer given voice, and a town gone gaga “On That Great Come and Get It Day” regaining its values, hope, and love. Never has calico been so appealing.
Post a comment
Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
It is understandable that money can make people independent. But what to do if somebody has no cash? The one way only is to get the loan and short term loan.
Posted by: Fulton29Mari | December 25, 2011 at 01:15 AM