Finian's Rainbow: simple plot, simplistic romance, great songs, terrific dancing and costumes.
So this Irishman (the pixie-ish Jim Norton) steals a pot of gold from a leprechaun (the lively, charming Christopher Fitzgerald), and takes his daughter (the beautiful, silver-throated Kate Baldwin) to rural America where she meets a big handsome guy (Cheyenne Jackson).
Director/choreographer Warren Carlyle starts us off with an Agnes DeMille Oklahoma!-style hoedown by the first-rate chorus and introduces the lovely, spectacular ballet dancer Alina Faye as a local girl who dances her thoughts without speaking. In Act Two, they kind of run out of plot and put in a couple of numbers that are just great show pieces, including a gospel quartet and Faye dancing to the harmonica of Guy Davis (this duo alone is worth the trip to this very entertaining show, which has a book by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg and music by Burton Lane).
Finian's Rainbow is filled with folksy fol-de-rol and song after song that is memorable. You walk out humming, "That Old Devil Moon," "How are Things in Gloccamora," "Look to the Rainbow," "Necessity" (performed by a powerful Teri White) and the little dessert near the end, "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love."
This show was a ground-breaker in race relations in America in 1947 and was probably the first integrated musical on Broadway. Its message of equality is still a kick for me. With a simple set by John Lee Beatty, terrific, imaginative costumes by Toni-Leslie James and lively lighting by Ken Billington, it's a light, feel-good musical with a touch of magic.
