FINIAN'S RAINBOW [PS Classics PS-1008]
How are things in Missitucky? Very fine, this time of the year. Missitucky, of course, is that mythical valley in the environs of Fort Knox; a place where gold is planted in the ground, competing with the local sharecropper's tobacco for mineral-rich nutrients. All of it spun from the fertile mind of one Yip Harburg, a fabled leprechaun from the Lower East Side who planted socially significant ideas while blithely sprouting previously unimagined verbs and adjectives.

Finian's Rainbow has come and gone. The new revival began its career in March 2009 as an Encores! concert. With three key cast changes and additional rehearsal time for director-choreographer Warren Carlyle to enhance his work on the dance-heavy show, Finian's Rainbow was transplanted in October to that fertile musical-comedy plot on 44th Street known as the St. James. Critical reaction was ecstatic, and understandably so. So was the response from most diehard musical comedy fans, thrilled by Burton Lane's golden melodies and the slyly sophisticated work of Mr. Harburg and his frequent cohort Fred Saidy. Other theatregoers found this playfully literate 1947 fantasy somewhat too tame; in a world of flash and brash and high-decibel power-ballads, Finian's Rainbow can rightfully be faulted for being merely — well, what? Merely brilliant?

That being the case, this Finian's Rainbow ended its journey after 92 performances. Not a success for the investors, certainly, nor for the performers who surely would have appreciated a few more months of well-deserved paychecks, as well as the opportunity to perform what must have been an enjoyable and rewarding show to play. For audiences, though, this 2009 revival of Finian's Rainbow was a grand success. Theatregoers — at least those in the environs of Times Square — finally had the chance to see Finian's Rainbow, which had been absent from town for 50 years. The chance to see it once or twice, the chance to see it delivered in a finely-spirited and fully-orchestrated manner. A grand success, yes; or maybe we should call it a grandish, sugarcandish succesh?

If the crock of gold has been uprooted, the stray specks of gold-dust swept away, and the rainbow patches warehoused — displaced by American Idiots, I suppose you could say — the Finian's Rainbow troupe has left behind a terrifish magnifish delish CD to keep the rainbow in the skies and our collective ears riding on clouds of gossamer harp strings. Or some such verbiage; where is Mr. Harburg when we need him? Kate Baldwin gets the vocal honors, as the ador-a-bell Sharon McLonergan. She is fairly well-matched by Cheyenne Jackson, as Woody. I think it's fair to say that Mr. Jackson doesn't have the shake-the-rafters voice of his Broadway predecessors in the role, David Richards and Biff McGuire (who played the 1960 revival); but both Mr. Richards and Mr. McGuire combined can't hold a candle to Mr. Jackson's charisma, or razzle-dazzle either. (Leave it to Mr. Harburg to make razzle-dazzle fodder for song lyrics; if Mr. Ebb later used the phrase to more notable effect, I'd like to think that he was tipping his hat to Yip.)

Christopher Fitzgerald makes a fine Og, exulting in his two solos (the exemplary "Something Sort of Grandish and the superb "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love"). Jim Norton was central to the production as Finian; his singing role is considerably lesser than that of his three cohorts, but he makes a good showing on the CD.

Standing out, in the theatre and on the recording as well, is Terri White. Ms. White, who made a name for herself on the very same St. James stage in 1980 in Barnum, makes an outright necessity of "Necessity" and shines in her various other solo lines. She is playing what was originally a nameless chorus role, here somewhat beefed up and given the name "Dottie." But even if White had been restricted to the solo lines of her group number, methinks that voice would have made her stand out from the group. Much was made in the local press of Ms. White's off-stage travails; a combination of bad luck, bad economics, and "the monkey wrench in a fellow's good intention" left her homeless, sleeping on a park bench in Washington Square Park. In this case good friends, good luck, and a good casting director brought her triumphantly back to Broadway. It was Ms. White's talent, though, that clinched the deal.

There are two prior Broadway albums of Finian's Rainbow, both with things to recommend them. This one is more complete, more audible (especially compared to the 1947 album, one of the very first from Columbia), and more enchanting than the others. Rob Berman shepherded Finian's Rainbow from Encores! to Broadway, and brought with him the most lustrous pit orchestra heard on Broadway since South Pacific took up residence at Lincoln Center. The original orchestrations, buoyed by a bewitching harp, are by Russell Bennett and Don Walker. Russell was fired, actually, and thrilled to get away from the tryout. Don took over from there, with Russell later sending over an overture in time for the Broadway opening. First person reports from Bennett, Walker, and conductor Milton Rosenstock indicate that everybody hated everybody. Starting from the first rehearsal, at which I'm told Harburg so insulted Lane that the composer stormed out in anger that never did dissipate. Whatever the case may be, Harburg and Lane wrote a dozen imperishable songs for the Rainbow.

Finian's Rainbow at the St. James Theatre? Gone. Finian's Rainbow on PS Classics? Here forever, and ain't that grandish indeed? Continued...