Finian's Rainbow transfers to Charing Cross Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FOLLOWING its sold-out run at the Union Theatre, Finian’s Rainbow, directed by Phil Willmott, is transferring to Charing Cross Theatre for a six-week season – from Thursday, April 3 to Saturday, May 10, 2014.
Tickets: £15 – £24.50 (note: slips £15; balcony £19.50 and stalls £24.50). To book, call the box office on 08444 930650 or visit www.charingcrosstheatre.co.uk/.
Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30pm; Thursday and Saturday matinee at 3pm.
Performance Length: Approximately two hours with one interval of fifteen minutes.
Previously Posted: The Union Theatre is presenting Finian’s Rainbow at its Southwark venue – from Wednesday, February 12 to Saturday, March 15, 2014.
Composed by Burton Lane (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) and with lyrics by E.Y Harburg (Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Brother Can You Spare a Dime?), Finian’s Rainbow contains some of the loveliest musical theatre songs ever written – Old Devil Moon, If This Isn’t Love, Look to the Rainbow and How are Things in Glocca Morra?
Comedy writer Fred Saidy and Harburg integrated them into an unashamedly silly plot involving an Irish immigrant, pursued by a leprechaun, hoping to grow gold in the soil around Fort Knox whilst finding a husband for his daughter.
The result was a smash hit Broadway musical, and the much loved film version starring Fred Astaire, Petula Clark and Tommy Steele.
Unperformed professionally in the UK since its first West End run, this ‘irresistible candyfloss confection is’, according to the press release, ‘the perfect, silliest, most romantic cure for the winter blues anyone could wish for’.
Finian’s Rainbow is directed by multi award-winning director and Union Theatre regular, Phil Willmott, whose past productions at the venue include the whatsonstage award nominated revival of Lionel Bart’s Fings Aint Wot They Used to Be and his own musical Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi. His latest musical, Lost Boy, is currently enjoying a successful run at the Charing Cross Theatre following a sell out run at The Finborough Theatre.
The cast of Finian’s Rainbow includes James Horne, Christina Bennington, Raymond Walsh, Michael Moulton, Anne Odeke, Marcia Lorenzo Cerise Reid, Michael J Hayes, John Last, Joseph Peters, Laura Bella Griffin, David Malcolm, Chris Kayson, Joshua Coley, Carl Bradley, Celia Byrne, Laura Webb, Shani Cantor, Danielle Acors, Lucy Murdoch, Rebecca Crawley, Abigail Carter Simpson and Stacey Victoria Bland.
Adapted by Charlotte Moore, Finian’s Rainbow has musical direction by Richard Baker and choreography by Thomas Michael Voss.
Tickets: £19.50, £17.50 concessions. All Tickets £15 for the 1st week. To book, call the box office on 020 7261 9876 or visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/uniontheatre.
Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm.