Broadway Revisited
(01/12/10): 10-3; January 16, 2010

Gypsy overture-- 1; fades under)

Hi, this is Art Hilgart and this is Broadway Revisited, a weekly exploration of the songs and shows, composers and lyricists, and performers who created the American musical theater.

(Music up, then fade)

We rarely devote a full program to a single show, and there's a reason. On radio, the words and music stand alone. On stage, a show can entertain even with a mediocre score, and even good ones often have a lot of filler. Happily, there have been a couple of dozen shows over the years in which every song entertains on its own. One of these is Finian's Rainbow, the charming 1947 show with book and lyrics by Yip Harburg and the music of Burton Lane. Here's the overture.

1. Overture (3:14)

Finian's Rainbow was Yip Harburg's idea, and the story combines several elements that reflect his generous spirit and sense of humor. We begin with the interracial farmers on their cooperative farm in mythical Missitucky. Sonny Terry's harmonica starts the show.

2. This Time of the Year (3:02)

Woody, the farmers' leader, was played by Donald Richards. Three folks from Ireland then appear. A fellow named Finian has stolen the pot of gold from a leprechaun, and he's come to bury it near Fort Knox, figuring that if the government digs up gold in California then buries it again, there must be a reason for it and his gold will grow in American soil. The leprechaun has come too, and so has Finian's daughter, played by Ella Logan.

3. How Are Things in Glocca Morra? (3:12)

Ella Logan came to New York from Scotland, not Ireland, and before Finian's Rainbow, she was a jazz singer on 52^nd Street and had a brief career in Hollywood. In Finian, the colleen and the farmer catch one another's attention.

4. Look to the Rainbow / Old Devil Moon (6:49)

Without his gold, the leprechaun is becoming human, and he too is interested in Finian's daughter. David Wayne played the leprechaun in the original cast.

5. Something Sort of Grandish (2:59)

National distribution of Broadway Revisited is supported by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and they'd like you know that David Wayne was one of the many Broadway actors who've learned their craft in Kalamazoo, at Western Michigan University. Woody's sister, Susan the Silent, was the principal dancer in Finian's Rainbow, but unable to speak. She's noticed the attraction between Woody and Finian's daughter. Woody interprets for her, and then speaks for himself.

6. If This Isn't Love (3: 12)

The next two songs from Finian's Rainbow illustrate Yip Harburg's good-natured approach to economics.

7. Necessity / When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich (6:24)

At this point, politics enters the plot. Thanks perhaps to the magic of the buried gold, the farm prospers. A racist senator, outraged that an interracial enterprise can succeed, attempts to swindle the farmers out of their land. This angers the leprechaun, and he uses his magic to turn the white senator black. This causes a miraculous change of heart in the senator, and he joins a gospel quartet.

8. The Begat (3:09)

When he notices the romance between Woody and the Irish lass, the love-smitten leprechaun switches his crush to Susan the Silent. Here's David Wayne.

9. When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love (3: 19)

Before becoming completely human, the leprechaun uses his final magic to give speech to Susan. The couples are together, the farm is prosperous, and that brings us to the finale of Finian's Rainbow, starring Ella Logan, David Wayne, and Donald Richards. The words and music were by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane.

10. Finale: That Great Come-and-Get-It Day (3:12)

The Columbia recording of the 1947 original cast album of Finian's Rainbow was in an album of six 78rpm records, and in 1951, it became the first Broadway cast album to be issued on long play vinyl. And now, it's on a compact disc.

In 1954, production began on an animated cartoon version of Finian's Rainbow. The director was Disney veteran and the founder of the UPA animation studio, John Hubley. The voices were to be provided by Ella Logan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. In 1947, Broadway audiences had no problem with a musical involving a biracial cooperative farm and a racist Southern senator, but in 1954, a decade before the national Civil Rights movement and during the Joe McCarthy years of anti-liberal blacklists, Hollywood did, and the plug was pulled on the production. Part of the soundtrack had already been recorded, though, and is now part of the Rhino album of Frank Sinatra movie tracks. Here then are Frank Sinatra, Ella Logan, and Ella Fitzgerald, with their versions of four of the songs from Finian's Rainbow.

11. Old Devil Moon / Necessity / That Great Come-and-Get-It Day/ How Are Things in Glocca Morra 14:02

In those reprises of songs from the cartoon soundtrack of Finian's Rainbow, Frank Sinatra, Ella Logan, and Ella Fitzgerald were accompanied by Red Norvo and the Oscar Peterson Trio.

(Gypsy overture-- 2; to end)

Join us again next week for another Broadway Revisited. It's produced with the assistance of Martin Klemm, in the WMUK studios of Western Michigan University. You can find our website with program schedules and stuff by typing Broadway Revisited into a Google search. And you can write to us at broadway@kzoo.edu. That's the word "broadway" at kzoo dot edu. And I'm Art Hilgart.

Total music: 52:34; Estimated talking: 5:15; Intro/outro: :30; Estimated total: 58:29.

Promo (12) : Ella Logan was one of the stars of the 1947 Broadway hit Finian's Rainbow, and we'll hear her and the original cast along with Frank Sinatra and others from a movie version. Finian's Rainbow this week on Broadway Revisited.