Finian’s Rainbow – Irish Repertory Theatre, New York

Mark Evans and Melissa Errico in Finian’s Rainbow at the Irish Repertory Theatre, New York. Picture: Carol Rosegg

Finian’s Rainbow continues at Irish Repertory Theatre, New York until 31 December.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It’s as if Charlotte Moore found a magic wand somewhere and sprinkled faerie dust over the stage of Off-Broadway’s Irish Repertory Theatre, where she is artistic director and where her production of Finian’s Rainbow is playing. The show is that irresistible.

Of course, staging a revival of this 1947 musical is not the most precarious of gambles, although there are potential pitfalls. The original production enjoyed a healthy 725 performances, but the latest Broadway revival some seven years ago failed to click at the box office, dimming the lights after 92 outings.

The score by composer Burton Lane and lyricist E. Y. Harburg is considered one of the best and brightest in the vintage Broadway canon, whereas the book, by Harburg and Fred Saidy, with its complicated mixture of unsubtle social commentary and sentimental Irish malarkey, strikes many as more than problematic.

At any rate, Moore, in her adaptation, has trimmed the proceedings to a fleet two hours, including intermission, shoving together all the twists and turns of the overstuffed script. And with the recent unexpected turn of events in the US presidential election, the story, with its depictions of racial bigotry, political and economic injustice and even xenophobia, packs a surprising emotional wallop along with theatrical enchantment.

It certainly helps that Moore has deftly directed on the minuscule stage of her recently renovated jewel box of a theatre an ensemble of 13 prodigious talents, headed by Broadway luminary Melissa Errico.

In a recent confessional article she wrote for the New York Times, Errico openly debated with herself as to whether at age 46 she should take on the ingénue role in this show, a part, by the way, that she played some 12 years ago when Irish Rep first staged a revival of Finian’s Rainbow. Well, Errico has nothing to worry about. Her Sharon exudes a fresh and open womanliness unmarked by time.

The show is set in 1947 in the not-so-mythical state of Missatucky in the US South (James Morgan’s compact and handsome set conjures a moss-covered Southern landscape).

Finian McLonergan, a good-hearted scalawag of an Irishman, has left his homeland after stealing the leprechauns’ fabled pot of gold and – with his daughter Sharon – journeyed to Missatucky to bury the loot in its soil. This, he believes, will enable it to grow into untold wealth and assure Sharon’s future.

In the meantime, they become involved with a group of sharecroppers whose livelihood is threatened by a racist politician, Senator Billboard Rawkins. Claiming unpaid taxes, Rawkins wants to take over the land they farm, owned by the young, good-hearted Woody.

Sharon, with part of Finian’s largesse, helps save the day, but things get complicated when the leprechaun Og shows up, sent by his fellow leprechauns to retrieve the crock of gold.

Things get more complicated when Sharon makes an inadvertent crock-of-gold wish that turns Rawkins into a black man. It all ends, however, with a genuinely sweet message of hope, tolerance and the earlier-indicated lump in the throat.

Between the brief exchanges of dialogue that unfold the tale, the show enthrals with one great tune after another. The chorale work is gorgeous. The onstage band, an accomplished chamber quartet of piano, violin, cello and harp, doesn’t replicate the knock-’em-dead pizzazz of a full Broadway complement of musicians, but what it lacks in power it makes up for with abundant charm.

Each number registers solidly. Almost on the heels of the buoyant chorus opening, ‘This Time of the Year”, there’s the signature salute to an idyllic Ireland, ‘How Are Things in Glocca Morra?’, sung with exquisite lyricism by Errico. She also does the same with the inspirational ‘Look to the Rainbow’, and then gets to demonstrate some sexual allure in ‘Old Devil Moon’. The love song is a duet with Woody, played with unforced macho zest by Ryan Silverman.

Their palpable chemistry takes a playful turn with ‘If This Isn’t Love’. Errico also shines with smarts, fronting much of the ensemble in the satirical lefty zinger ‘When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich’.

Among the many other gems, there’s Rawkins (Dewey Caddell), his transformation to a black man marked simply but effectively by the wearing of a dark eye mask, suddenly enjoying his blackish-ness and joining in with a trio called the Gospeleers (William Bellamy, Ramone Owens and Kyle Taylor Parker) for a rendering of a sly take-off on Biblical genealogy, ‘Begat’. Sassy sharecropper Sally Ann (Angela Grovey) leads another spiritual-inflected number, ‘Necessity.”

Barry McNabb’s choreography adds physical definition to many of the numbers, and is showcased in the graceful dance solo by Lyrica Woodruff as Woody’s mute sister Susan.

It also adds to the wit of Mark Evans, making a noteworthy New York stage debut as Og, climaxed as he tears up the stage telling us what happens ‘When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love’.

Finally, there’s Ken Jennings’ winning portrayal of the roguish Finian, who adds to the moistness in the eye with his emotional leave-taking as the show nears its final moments.

It hardly seems that long ago that Jennings shocked and saddened us with his demise as the original Tobias in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Oh, well, tempus fugit…except, of course, in the case of Errico…and, for that matter, Finian’s Rainbow.

Ron Cohen  

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