About the work
Finian's Rainbow is a musical with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, who also wrote the book with Fred Saidy. Its 1947 Broadway premiere combined exuberant Irish romance and fantasy with bold social satire. Poised between fairy-tale charm and political provocation, the work is one of the most unusual musicals of the post-war years – buoyant, melodious and, for its time, remarkably daring in its critique of racism and greed.
Plot
The Irish dreamer Finian McLonergan emigrates with his daughter Sharon and a stolen crock of gold to the fictional U.S. state of Missitucky, believing that the gold, buried near Fort Knox, will miraculously multiply. On his trail is the leprechaun Og, to whom the gold belongs and who gradually turns human without his treasure. When Sharon falls in love with the union organiser Woody and accidentally makes a wish, the bigoted, racist Senator Billboard Rawkins is transformed into a Black man – an experience that forces him to change his ways. Amid love, magic and social change, the entanglements are resolved in the end.
Cultural significance
Finian's Rainbow was one of the first Broadway musicals to openly denounce racism and social injustice, and it featured a remarkably integrated cast for the 1940s. The songs by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg – above all the wistful "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and the dreamy "Old Devil Moon" – became standards of the Great American Songbook. With its blend of whimsy and commitment, the show remains a classic that is regularly revived to this day.