A fond farewell to Finian's Rainbow

Another Sunday in January and sadly, the curtain falls on another Broadway show. It's time to say goodbye to the musical revival of Finian's Rainbow, which closes today after 92 performances at the St. James Theatre.

I really thought this one might have a chance.

I had qualms going in about the silliness of the plot - but I ended up being charmed. And it got generally good reviews - in The New York Times, Charles Isherwood called the production "joyous."

True, there were no "stars" to draw the tourists and it's not a classic with the name recognition of say, West Side Story.

But Finian's Rainbow seemed to do the right things to build an audience, including having a very active Twitter and Facebook presence. Also, I thought it had the potential to be a good family show - a love story for adults, magic for the kids.

Just shows how much I know! Guess I'd better stay out of Broadway producing.

There were some terrific performances in Finian's Rainbow. I thought Kate Baldwin was lovely as the feisty Irish lass Sharon McLonergan, especially when she sang "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" And Christopher Fitzgerald was a very funny leprechaun. I hope the Tony nominators remember them.

This was a musical that debuted on Broadway in 1947, when its theme of racial harmony was considered daring. Just having black and white dancers on stage together was controversial. Thankfully, times have changed. And I guess the time for Finian's Rainbow has passed.

There simply was not enough of an audience. With 20-20 hindsight, that's pretty easy to see - a somewhat obscure 63-year-old musical with no stars is going to have trouble, no matter how glowing the reviews. There just isn't enough of a built-in fan base. At least there's a cast recording.

Maybe we're moving to an era of limited-run musicals just like we do for plays.

Lowering the curtain on 2009

Here are a few final thoughts before I bid farewell to 2009, my third year of theatergoing:

• I'm sad that Finian's Rainbow is closing Jan. 17, despite some great reviews. It seems like on Broadway, they hardly give shows a chance anymore. Yes, the musical's story was kind of silly and a bit of a hodgepodge but in the end I was charmed, especially by the lovely Kate Baldwin and the spritely Christopher Fitzgerald. Also, Finian's Rainbow had one of the most attractive posters I've seen.
  

• Speaking of posters, not that it matters but A Steady Rain had one of the worst designs I've ever seen. How can you take two handsome men like Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman and make them almost painful to look at? I guess it was designed to symbolize their friendship, the merging of their lives. But it made them look like a two-headed Cyclops.
  

• Of my favorite lines in 2009 none was more shocking than one from Mary Stuart. I could not believe it when Janet McTeer as the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots taunted Queen Elizabeth I (Harriet Walter) with: "The throne of England is desecrated by a bastard." Not a wise thing to say to the woman who holds the keys to your jail and the warrant for your execution!

• Spoiler alert: I never realized that watching someone vomit on stage could be so entertaining but Hope Davis was superb at, er, "erupting" in God of Carnage. And watching the other three actors scurry around, trying to help her and cleaning up the mess, was hilarious. This is a scene that I knew was coming but it was executed in a way that still managed to surprise me.
  

• reasons to be pretty had an ending that made me laugh and cheer. Thomas Sadoski's character makes an obscene gesture after he's quit his job in the warehouse of a Costco-like chain. It was a beautiful moment and symbolized the way Sadoski's Greg became his own man. I hadn't planned on seeing this play but I ended up enjoying it so much, in large part due to Sadoski's engaging performance. Despite the ever-increasing appearance of celebrities on Broadway stages, it's most often the actors who aren't household names who end up making the biggest impression on me.
  

• On the downside, I've noticed more theatergoers arriving late and is it my imagination or have candy wrappers become more crinkly and noisy in the past year?
  

• Speaking of noise, I heard The Marvelous Wonderettes thumping above my head when I saw Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside Theatre and I heard the rumbling of the subway trains beneath my feet during Waiting for Godot at Studio 54. Grrr.
  

• I'd been dreading 2009 long before January but thanks to my theatre-loving friends, it turned out to be a wonderful year, better than I could possibly have imagined. They made sure I had the best birthday ever. I am so grateful to them for that and for so much more.
  

• To everyone who read my blog, left a comment, followed me on Twitter, friended me on Facebook, sent me an e-mail, joined me for lunch, brunch dinner or a show, thank-you for the gift of your time and your friendship. Here's to a happy, healthy and adventure-filled 2010!
  

• Finally, out of everything I've read about theatre in 2009, this description by playwright Adam Szymkowicz of the plays that excite him resonated with me the most:
  
  "I want to have a good time. I want to laugh, I want to be engaged, I want to care. I like plays about things. I like crazy off the wall experiments and I like naturalism, too. Most importantly, I like narrative. If you're not telling me a story, I get bored and I hate your play. I don't want to hate your play. I want you to show me something new. I get excited by something I haven't seen before."

Gifts for theatre lovers - 2009 edition

It's time to pick out a gift for the theatre lover in your life.

Here's my 2008 list and all of the items on it are still highly recommended. But I want to add some new choices to the mix. I've stayed away from movie musicals and cast recordings, figuring they'd have those already.

And as I noted last year, these are great for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays or any other time of year that you want to do something special for someone special.

1.) Free for All, by Kenneth Turan. I've just started reading this oral history of Joe Papp, founder of New York's Public Theater and the man who brought free Shakespeare to Central Park, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm especially looking forward to reading about the role Papp played in bringing musicals like Hair and A Chorus Line to Broadway. The story of how Free for All finally came to be published is interesting too.

2.) The Play that Changed My Life. This compilation, put together by the American Theatre Wing and edited by Ben Hodges, features essays by and interviews with a diverse group of 19 playwrights, all talking about the works that influenced them. It's always interesting to read what inspires people, especially if you're an aspiring writer yourself.

3.) Ticket album. My friend and fellow blogger Jan, from Broadway & Me, included this item in her list last year and I thought it sounded like a good idea. Then I got one as a gift and I love it! Now, if I want to know when I saw a show, where I sat or how much I paid, I have this close by. The slots are perfect for a Broadway ticket but you'll need to do a little snipping to make bigger ones fit.

4.) For me, one of the highlights of Finian's Rainbow on Broadway was listening to the delightful Kate Baldwin sing "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?" So beautiful. Her first solo cd, Let's See What Happens, includes that song and others by composers Burton Lane and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg written from the 1940s to the 1960s.

5.) Sadly, I never got to see Forbidden Broadway, the show that spoofed Broadway shows. But I have bought a couple of their cds and the songs are very funny, especially if you recognize the originals to which they're paying homage. The 20th anniversary compilation is a good mix of tunes poking (gentle) fun at some classic musicals.

6.) Who wouldn't want theatre tickets, right? Regional theatres do great work and they add so much to the cultural life in their communities. The League of Resident Theatres has links on its Web site to 76 theatre companies across the United States. This is a chance to give a memorable gift while supporting the arts at the local level.

7.) Okay, I know I was going to stay away from cast recordings but if there's a child on your list who loves Disney movies, cds from the musical versions of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins or The Little Mermaid can be a great way to introduce them to the wonderful world of show tunes.

8.) I always like to have something from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on my list because the money it raises helps support critically needed services all over the country. Last year, I bought the 10th anniversary, two-disc Carols for a Cure. This year's catalog is full of terrific gifts. But a purple piggy bank caught my eye. It's never too early to start saving up for your first Broadway show!

Finian's Rainbow

Gratuitous Violins rating: *** out of ****

On a gray, damp day in New York City I spent an afternoon taking in the vibrant, sunny revival of Finian's Rainbow at Broadway's St. James Theatre. Yes, I'll admit I was charmed.

Not everything worked for me but in the end, the timeless music, choreography and captivating performances won me over. If I couldn't quite forget the flaws, at least I made peace with them and sat back and enjoyed the show.

Tony winner Jim Norton is Irishman Finian McLonergan, a lovable rogue with a brogue, and the beautiful Kate Baldwin plays his feisty daughter Sharon.

They've come to America with a pot of gold that Finian has stolen from a leprechaun named Og, a delightfully comic Christopher Fitzgerald. (Will someone please give this talented actor a role on Broadway where he doesn't have to wear a funny costume?!)

The McLonergans, with Og on their trail, happen upon the community of Rainbow Valley, in the mythical Southern state of Missitucky, a place where black and white sharecroppers work side by side harvesting tobacco.

Among them is the very sweet and handsome Cheyenne Jackson as Woody Mahoney. (I'm not quite sure what Mahoney is supposed to be - whether he owns the land, works it or is some kind of community organizer. But no matter!)

Their idyllic existence is threatened by the bigoted white Senator Rawkins, a role shared terrifically by David Schramm and Chuck Cooper, who undergoes a startling transformation. I loved Cooper's rendition of the gospel-influenced "The Begat."

The musical, with a book by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Fred Saidy, and a score by Harburg and Burton Lane, is a mix of fantasy and social commentary that seems tame now but was daring when it opened on Broadway in 1947. Harburg "had to fight like hell to make sure all the blacks and whites got to dance together onstage," his son Ernie told The New York Times recently.

The plot of Finian's Rainbow is sort of silly and there isn't much dramatic tension or depth to the characters. I never felt the people of Rainbow Valley were really in any danger. Plus, in 2009, it was a little unsettling that their cash crop is tobacco. (Shouldn't the Playbill include a government health warning?)

Still, the musical has the kind of classic, exhilarating Broadway choreography - by director Warren Carlyle - that's so much fun to watch, especially the big ensemble numbers. The same goes for Fitzgerald's magic tricks. And Jackson well, even when he forgot a line once, it was cute to watch him recover - quickly and expertly. What a perfect reminder that anything can happen at a live performance!

Finally, how could I resist Baldwin's gorgeous voice - especially her absolutely heavenly rendition of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" Of course, I couldn't. After most of Finian's Rainbow has faded away, it's the memory that will stay with me the longest.