Encores! FINIAN'S RAINBOW Begins at City Center 3/26

Tony Award-winners Philip Bosco, Jim Norton and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, as well as Cheyenne Jackson, Kate Baldwin, and Jeremy Bobb star in Finian's Rainbow, the final production of New York City Center's 2008-09 Encores! season. Performances begin tonight March 26th, and runs through to March 29th.

Finian's Rainbow has music by Burton Lane, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg and book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy and will be directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Rob Berman.

The musical will play five performances at City Center (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues).

Finian's Rainbow is the story of the Irishman Finian McLonergan (Jim Norton), and his daughter Sharon (Kate Baldwin) who travel to a small Southern town in the mythical state of Missitucky with plans to bury a stolen pot of gold in the shadows of Fort Knox, in the mistaken belief it will grow and multiply. They have been followed from Ireland by the owner of the gold, a leprechaun (Jeremy Bobb), who shows up determined to recover his treasure. Harburg and Lane created one of Broadway's greatest popular scores, including "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?," "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love (I Love the Girl I'm Near)," "That Old Devil Moon," and "If This Isn't Love."
Finian's Rainbow opened at the 46th Street Theatre on January 10, 1947 and played a total of 725 performances. Michael Kidd won the Tony Award for his choreography (In an interesting note, the show played at New York City Center twice before - in 1955 and 1960, presented by the New York City Light Opera.).

The cast includes: Kate Baldwin, Jeremy Bobb, Philip Bosco, Guy Davis, Alina Faye, Cheyenne Jackson, Jim Norton, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Andy Weems and William Youmans, with Tanya Birl, Bree Branker, Meggie Cansler, Bernard Dotson, Leslie Donna Flesner, Lisa Gajda, Tim Hartman, Mary Illes, Tyrick Wiltez Jones, Denis Lambert, Kevin Ligon, Monica L. Patton, Joe Aaron Reid, Devin Richards, Steve Schepis, Rashidra Scott, J.D. Webster and Terri White

The Newman's Own Foundation is a proud sponsor of Encores! The Newman's Own Foundation is an independent private foundation which derives its grant-making income from royalty payments received in conjunction with the sale of Newman's Own food products. Since the inception of Newman's Own in the early 1980s, over $200 million has been donated to thousands of charitable organizations worldwide.

The 2008-2009 Encores! season is made possible in part by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores! with additional support from the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust and Roz and Jerry Meyer. 
New York City Center Encores! (Jack Viertel, Artistic Director; Rob Berman, Music Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely-heard works of America's most important composers and lyricists. Conceived as concert versions, each Encores! season gives three scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators. Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many others. The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City's preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater. New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series, and is home to some of the country's leading dance companies, including Alvin AileyAmerican Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York's leading theater companies. In 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival, continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience.

In 2006, New York City Center formed partnerships with both London's Sadler's WellsTheatre to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and with Carnegie Hall to work together on exciting new programming initiatives between the two neighboring institutions. In 2007 New York City Center introduced the Encores! Summer Stars series with the critically-acclaimed production of Gypsy¸ which subsequently enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, and which was followed in 2008 by Damn Yankees starring Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski.

This summer, Encores! Summer Stars will present The Wiz. 

Tickets for Finian's Rainbow are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org.

Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine are $95; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.

Photo by Joan Marcus