Customer Reviews

Finian's Rainbow (1947 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When it opened in January 1947, FINIAN'S RAINBOW stepped into what today would seem like a musical-lover's dream. For playing on Broadway were OKLAHOMA! (still, after nearly four years), CAROUSEL, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, and within months BRIGADOON would be joining them. FINIAN'S RAINBOW, however, was in every respect worthy of the company.

Burton Lane and Yip Harburg fashioned songs that Lane is on record as saying he did not seek to be commercial; yet many quickly became standards, including "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?", "That Old Devil Moon", "If This Isn't Love", "Necessity", and, perhaps the show's finest song, "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love" - sung on this recording by an irrepressible David Wayne. The 1960 revival recording is in stereo but the charms of the score are heard best here on the Original where the mono sound is clean. Sadly, it's not a show that's been revived much. Its particular take on race relations was bold for its time but now appears twee and patronising. Too bad, for it contains a score that some place very high indeed on the All Time List. No Broadway Collection can be without FINIAN'S RAINBOW.

With Ella Logan and David Wayne singing classics like OLD DEVIL MOON, IF THIS ISN'T LOVE, SOMETHING SORT OF GRANDISH, and HOW ARE THINGS IN GLOCCA MORRA?, this CD is great!

Finian's Rainbow is one of the most beautiful scores ever written for the Broadway stage. Although the book is very dated by today's standards, the score is one of the best. A great cast too. Ella Logan is wonderful as Sharon McLonergan.

It took the movie studios quite some time to take notice of Finian's Rainbow. 21 years later, in 1968, Warner Bros. released the bloated film version starring Fred Astaire (in his last musical role) as Finian and Petula Clark as Sharon. The movie, bloated as it is, is pretty good.

This original cast album was recorded for Columbia Records on April 3, 1947. Now don't let the fact that this is a 55 year old monaural recording originally released on 78-RPM records dissuade you from buying this CD. The monaural sound is very clear and clean, more than can be said of other recordings of the time on other labels. Sound quality here is fantastic. Finian's Rainbow was Columbia's first dive into show recordings, a field it would dominate for the next 30 years. Other shows had been recorded before, but this was the first for Columbia.

The white LP cover has been reproduced for this CD (versus the original pink 78 cover used for the more recent remastered & expanded CD version, which I have not heard. I have the 1960 revival recording on LP and it is good too but this is the Finian's Rainbow to start with. It is the best

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

(Would also like to see Warner Bros. release the movie soundtrack on CD, as it is very good as well.)

When will a fully staged, complete, professional revival of this extraordinary musical be presented, hopefully on Broadway? It seems that producers are "frightened" of the racial satire inherent in the plot in which a white, republican bigot becomes, in one magical moment, an African American sharecropper. Much less worthy musicals have been revamped, redesigned, even re-written and have become hits.

The Burton Lane/E. Y. Harburg score is certainly one of the glories of the golden age of musical comedy featuring some of the most beautiful songs to ever grace a stage: "Ole Devil Moon" and "If This Isn't Love" and, especially, the perennially recorded "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?". Even the comic songs score points: "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love..." and "The Begat."

This original cast recording has sound that is not the best, but the performers shine and until a new, complete recording is made, this one will have to do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Some idiot put up the review that I wrote for the other recording of FINIAN, from 1960. The comments below do not apply to this 1947 classic, which is the original cast that I urged you to buy. I once again urge you to buy it. Ella Logan and David Wayne are unique and unforgettable, and the sound is not at all bad for its era.

When will a fully staged, complete, professional revival of this extraordinary musical be presented, hopefully on Broadway? It seems that producers are "frightened" of the racial satire inherent in the plot in which a white, republican bigot becomes, in one magical moment, an African American sharecropper. Much less worthy musicals have been revamped, redesigned, even re-written and have become hits.

The Burton Lane/E. Y. Harburg score is certainly one of the glories of the golden age of musical comedy featuring some of the most beautiful songs to ever grace a stage: "Ole Devil Moon" and "If This Isn't Love" and, especially, the perennially recorded "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?". Even the comic songs score points: "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love..." and "The Begat."

This original cast recording, made over 60 years ago, has sound that is not the best although certainly not as bad as the original cast album of "Brigadoon," but the performers shine and until a new, complete recording is made, this one will have to do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

When will a fully staged, complete, professional revival of this extraordinary musical be presented, hopefully on Broadway? It seems that producers are "frightened" of the racial satire inherent in the plot in which a white, republican bigot becomes, in one magical moment, an African American sharecropper. Much less worthy musicals have been revamped, redesigned, even re-written and have become hits.

The Burton Lane/E. Y. Harburg score is certainly one of the glories of the golden age of musical comedy featuring some of the most beautiful songs to ever grace a stage: "Ole Devil Moon" and "If This Isn't Love" and, especially, the perennially recorded "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?". Even the comic songs score points: "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love..." and "The Begat."

This original cast recording has sound that is not the best, but the performers shine and until a new, complete recording is made, this one will have to do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

For all of us of a certain age, there's a first ever 45 rpm record to come into our lives, also a very first album. FINIAN'S RAINBOW was mine. I was perhaps 7 years old when my mom gave me her set of 10" COLUMBIA green label 78s of this very recording you're viewing. Almost 50 years later I can still sing most of the lyrics to these wonderful Harburg & Lane tunes. Enough about me though.

This reissued CD is top shelf stuff. Excellent sound, clearer than you've ever heard from vinyl or shellac. One improvement is an earlier take of "The Begat" that was originally rejected because of one extraneous thump. This version, totally "new" to us long-time fans, is absolutely superior to the one we're so familiar with. It has more exuberance and seems fresher.

"Finian's" was the first Broadway production to win the Best Show Tony, and deservedly so. These marvelous tunes are some of the Great White Way's best and the story is most interesting.


TRIVIA:
Ella Logan (born Georgina Allan), stars as Sharon McLonergan. Ella was a Scotswoman and had a prominent Scottish brogue. When she sings here, it's not an Irish accent you perceive but her natural Scots brogue, unembellished.

David Wayne (Og the leprechaun) was the first recipient of the Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony award, for FINIAN'S RAINBOW. He also won a Best Actor Tony for "Teahouse of the August Moon" and originated the role of Ensign Pulver in the Broadway production of "Mr. Roberts."

Donald Richards (Woody) had a short Broadway career (3 shows). He was killed in a traffic accident in 1953, at age 34.

Irish-born Albert Sharpe (Finian) appeared in the movie version of BRIGADOON (1954) and had the lead in Disney's DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959).

According to back cover liner notes of the 1965 Mitchell Trio LP, SLIGHTLY IRREVERENT (MERCURY Records), lyricist E.Y. Harburg's nickname wasn't Yip. It was YIT. (Harburg contributes political doggerel to this album.)

This lovely reissue of FINIAN'S RAINBOW (which it should be noted is the exact same disc and contents as the 1999 Broadway Masterworks pressing but in an "eco-pack" cardboard sleeve) is a real treat. The Burton Lane-E.Y. Harburg score includes classic numbers like "Look to the Rainbow", "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?", "Something Sort of Grandish" and "That Old Devil Moon".

It catapulted the beguiling Ella Logan to Broadway stardom, in the plum lead role of Sharon; and also featured an impish performance from David Wayne as the leprechaun, Og.

This latest reissue of the peerless 1947 original cast album has been remastered from the original, almost-pristine acetate master discs, which had remained untouched since the recording was originally made. These acetate discs contained alternate 'takes' of the numbers as well as additional music cues and dialogue passages. Presented here for the first time is the complete "That Great Come-and-Get-It Day". There are also demos of three songs performed by lyricist E.Y. Harburg.

Highly-recommended. [SONY SK-89208]

I own this cast album from the original production, and I recently purchased the cast album from the 2009 Broadway revival. The 1947 cast was excellent, but the 2009 recording is superior in sound quality, voices,orchestration, and chorus. Most importantly, the songs from the original production are not on the CD in the order in which they appear in the show, which is confusing if you're trying to understand the plot.