Finian's Rainbow

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This article is about the stage musical. For the 1968 film adaptation, see Finian's Rainbow.

Original Broadway production
Finian's Rainbow
Original Playbill
Music	Burton Lane
Lyrics	E.Y Harburg
Book	E.Y. Harburg Fred Saidy
Theatre	46th Street Theatre
Opened	January 10, 1947
Closed	October 2, 1948

Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane.

An odd combination of whimsy, romance, and political satire, the plot revolves around Finian McLonergan, who has emigrated from Ireland to the town of Rainbow Valley in the mythical state of Missitucky with his daughter Sharon, intent on burying a stolen pot of gold in the shadows of Fort Knox, in the mistaken belief it will grow and multiply. Hot on their heels is Og, a leprechaun intent on recovering his treasure. Complicating matters are a corrupt senator who makes no effort to conceal his racial bigotry and the wishes made by those unknowingly in the vicinity of the hidden crock, including Sharon, who gives the senator a taste of his own hateful medicine by accidentally turning him black.

The original Broadway production, directed by Bretaigne Windust and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened on January 10, 1947 at the 46th Street Theatre, where it ran for 725 performances. The cast included Ella Logan as Sharon, Albert Sharpe as Finian, and, as Og, David Wayne, who won both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (the first one ever given) and the Theatre World Award for his performance. The show also received Tonys for Best Conductor and Musical Director and Best Choreography.

The Irish-tinged score also includes gospel and R&B influences. An original cast recording released as a six-disc 78 rpm set by Columbia Records was the label's first recording of a Broadway musical. The label used the album to introduce its new LP format in June 1948. In 1988, the album was released on CD, and in 2000, a second CD version appeared that was remastered from the original acetates and restored some material originally recorded but cut from the show, including three bonus tracks in which Harburg discusses the writing of and sings "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "When I'm Not Near he Girl I Love," as well as singing "Don't Pass Me By," a song cut from the show. [1]

Finian's Rainbow has been revived three times on Broadway by the New York City Center Light Opera Company. The 1955 production, directed by William Hammerstein and choreographed by Onna White, starred Helen Gallagher, Merv Griffin, and Will Mahoney, who was nominated for a Tony as Best Featured Actor in a Musical. In 1960, Herbert Ross directed and choreographed a cast that included Jeannie Carson, Howard Morris, Sorrell Booke, and Robert Guillaume. A third revival was staged by the company in 1967.

Although major revivals of the musical have been rare in recent decades, as the subject of bigotry against blacks in the American South is dated in contemporary times, in 2004 the Irish Repertory Theatre staged a well-received off-Broadway production starring Melissa Errico and Malcolm Gets [2].

A 1968 film version with Fred Astaire and Petula Clark was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.