Broadway is getting its first full-scale revival of the musical "Finian's Rainbow" in decades. The 1947 original is remembered as a lighthearted affair, something about a leprechaun and a stolen crock of gold that grants three wishes. But for all its Irish whimsy, the show was a satire on corruption in government, and anti-black racism. One of the wishes granted
by the magical crock of gold is to turn a racist white senator into a black man. The show also casts a jaundiced eye on American business, an unwelcome theme in the era when communists were suspected around every corner. Lyricist Yip Harburg even found himself blacklisted in Hollywood in part because of Finian's Rainbow. Playbill Radio goes inside rehearsals for the show to talk with its leads, its director and the man who makes its magic. We also talk with the descendants of the original creators lyricist Harburg, composer Burton Lane and librettist Fred Saidy, who serve as consultants on the revival, now at the St. James Theatre.
Publish Date: 10/31/2009 Length of clip: 00:36:36 Size of clip: 16.8 MB
