FROM STAGE TO SCREEN ... FINIAN’S RAINBOW

 

FINIANS RAINBOW 1947

Music by Burton Lane; lyrics by E. Y. Harburg

Book by Harburg & Fred Saidy.

Songs: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?," "If This Isn't Love," "Look to the Rainbow," "Old Devil Moon," "Something Sort of Grandish," "Necessity," "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich," "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love," "That Great Come-and-Get It Day," "The Begat."

New York: January 10, 1947

46th St. Theatre; 725 performances.

Presented: Lee Sabinson & William Katzell;

Directed: Bretaigne Windust;

Choreographed: Michael Kidd;

Settings & lighting: Jo Mielziner

Costumes: Eleanor Goldsmith;

Music Director: Milton Rosenstock

Orchestrations: Robert Russell Bennett, Don Walker.

CAST: Ella Logan (Sharon McLonergan), Albert Sharpe (Finian McLonergan), Donald Richards (Woody Mahoney), David Wayne (Og), Anita Alvarez (Susan Mahoney), Robert Pitkin (Sen. Billboard Rawkins).

London: Oct.21, 1947

Palace Theatre; 55 performances.

Finian's Rainbow, a fantasy with social commentary, evolved out of librettist Yip Harburg's desire to satirize an economic system dependent upon keeping gold reserves buried in the ground. This led to his thinking of a pot of gold, which reminded him of leprechauns and their crock of gold that was good for three wishes. The story concerns a simple-minded Irish immigrant who believes that since the US became rich by burying gold at Fort Knox, he could get rich by burying a crock of gold he had stolen from a leprechaun. Og, a leprechaun who has followed Finian to Rainbow Valley. Missitucky, tries to retrieve the crock. He has also fallen in love with Finian's daughter, Sharon, who much prefers Woody, the union organizer. 

 

Harburg also combined another story, about a bigoted Southern senator who miraculously turns black, by making the transformation one of the three wishes. The main philosophical point: people find riches not in gold but in trusting one another.

 

 

FINIANS RAINBOW 1968

Warner Bros. / Seven Arts, 1968

Colour, 145 minutes

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay by: E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy

Lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, Music by Burton Lane

Music Supervised and Conducted by: Ray Heindorf

Musical Score: Burton Lane

Choreography by: Hermes Pan

Set Decorators: William L. Kuehl, Philip Abramson

Costumes Designed by: Dorothy Jeakins

Filmed in Panavision and Technicolor

Cast:

Fred Astaire (Finian McLonergan)

Petula Clark (Sharon McLonergan)

Tommy Steele (Og)

Don Francks (Woody Mahoney)

SOUNDTRACK:

1 Prelude (Main Title)
2 This Time Of The Year
3 How Are Things In Glocca Morra
4 Look To The Rainbow
5 If This Isn't Love
6 Something Sort Of Grandish
7 That Great Come And Get It Day
8 Old Devil Moon
9 When The Idle Poor Become The Idle Rich
10 When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love
11 Necessity
12 Rain Dance Ballet
13 The Begat
14 How Are Things In Glocca Morra (Finale)