In Finian’s Rainbow, a shrewd Irishman and his comely daughter exile themselves to the fictional state of Missitucky in the American South. Composer Burton Lane and lyricist Yip Harburg concocted this 1947 musical while exiled to Hollywood. The result was a very New York show with little that was authentic to the Emerald Isle; as the critic Wilfrid Sheed observed: “The lyrics never really got out of the harbour.”

Kate Baldwin and Cheyenne Jackson (centre)

Happy to say, the show, with all its ersatz Irishness, has returned to port: Warren Carlyle’s charming new production, based on a semi-staged version presented earlier this year at New York’s City Center, has found a berth on Broadway.

The show has an every-which-way book, with the Irishman of the title stealing a pot of gold from a leprechaun and trying to bury it in the shadow of Fort Knox, while aiming to marry off that daughter, Sharon, to a Missitucky local named Woody Mahoney. And the political satire – involving a racist Southern senator outfitted in a Colonel Sanders white suit – can seem dated.

For these reasons, Finian’s Rainbow seemed sensibly confined to concert versions that showcased Lane and Harburg’s lustrous songs (“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”, “Old Devil Moon”) or off-Broadway, where the show’s holes were less glaringly exposed. In the wake of recent ridiculously cast classic musicals on Broadway, however, the fact that Carlyle resisted film stars and opted for actors who could sing these standards is reason to celebrate the undertaking.

Against the gauzy contours of John Lee Beatty’s rolling, putting-green set, the milky complexion of Kate Baldwin, who plays Sharon, could be an advertisement for the Irish Tourist Board. Baldwin, whose temperament is almost as fiery as her hair colour, has a big, clear soprano. Her voice got a spectacular airing in a recent revival of She Loves Me, but for most theatregoers she will be Finian’s Rainbow’s major discovery.

Cheyenne Jackson’s good looks and creamy tones are ideal for Woody, and Jim Norton makes of Finian something more than a cartoon character. Meanwhile, the show’s combination of whimsy, romance and satire is like nothing Hollywood has ever devised. Where but on Broadway could you see Finian’s choreographic high point: a ballet solo danced to blues-harmonica accompaniment?

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