Remember when, well maybe your not that old, but back in the 40s and 50s great musicals were born and entertained us in a kinder and less raucous way. They were wonderful shows with wonderful songs, basic sometimes silly plots and always with casts to die for. Well many of them have been revived over the years with some being done well and some just a waste of time.
Well last night one of the oldies, first seen in 1947 to be exact, opened at the St. James theater and if you haven’t figured it out already it was and is Finian’s Rainbow with, as I just said wonderful songs, a silly plot about a crock of gold with strange powers and a cast to die for. My wife and I loved it from the overture to the final curtain and while you can find all sorts of race relation situations in the show, they wont really bother or invigorate you in any way and may at times silly in today’s world would regard such goings on as horribly dated
First there’s the terrific songs by Burtton Lane and Yip Harburg and I have to admit I’m partial because I can sing every word to every one of them They include Old Devil Moon, Look to the Rainbow, If This isn’t Love and of course the show’s signature song How Are Things in Glocca Morra. and then The cast from a mysterious philosopher from afar, a marvelous brogue happy Jim Norton who won a Tony for his performance in The Seafarer, to a leprechaun named Og who wants the crock and is campily played by Christopher Fitzgerald to an actress named Kate Baldwin who looked gorgeous and sang like an angel as Norton’s daughter Sharon (and true it is Sharon I’m carin for).are all perfectly cast. There's lots more including Cheyenne Jackson as the love interest and all sorts of good folks in the chorus whose dancing and singing is the best you could ever wish for in this old time good time family oriented musical.
I don’t really say many times that I really care to see a show again but I think this time I’ll buy another ticket and sit back and listen to the music which I have to admit takes me back to a long long time ago. The show as the song says perfectly is Something Sort of Grandish!
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