FiniansRainbow

A Letter from FINIAN'S RAINBOW Producer, Jack Viertel

FINIAN'S RAINBOW is arguably the most important show—play or musical—written in the first half of the 20th century to take as its theme the repellent and insidious nature of bigotry.

Through the devices of satire, fantasy, romance and great songs, the show is a persuasive and elegant plea for racial harmony and equality among people of all colors, classes, and nationalities.

What is more remarkable is that many of the show's ideas, which were hopeful fantasies in the 1940s, have become realities today, so that FINIAN'S RAINBOW is even more touching and entertaining now than it was then. And yet, under the surface of light comedy and song, the show still points to the ways in which we still have a lot of work to do as we look to the rainbow.