“Look to the Rainbow” from Finian’s Rainbow

Finian’s Rainbow
By Burton Lane and E. Y. Harburg
Glocca Morra Music Corp. (ASCAP) and Chappell & Co. Inc. (ASCAP)
All rights on behalf of Glocca Morra Music Corp. administered by WC Music Corp.

Heather Headley, vocalist
Doug Peck, music director

The most important contribution of composer Burton Lane (1912-1997) and lyricist E. Y. Harburg (1896-1981) to the “Golden Age” of the American musical was Finian’s Rainbow. A triumph at its 1947 opening, it became one of the best-loved shows of its time.

The whole idea of a rainbow clearly meant good luck for Harburg, who in 1939 — with composer Harold Arlen &mdash had shared the Oscar for Best Song, winning for “Over the Rainbow”.

As a musical, Finian’s Rainbow offered the sort of escapism and fantasy that audiences enthusiastically welcomed. Sharon, the show’s heroine, an Irish girl newly arrived in America, sings the song to Woody, whom she’s just met and with whom she instantly falls in love. The sheer sweetness of “Look to the Rainbow” conveys a special message, which she knows will comfort her “whenever the world falls apart”: looking to the rainbow will lead her to the joy to be found in the eyes of her true love.