CDs: Glocca Morra with Pianos

Finian's Rainbow represents a unique musical-comedy mixture of fantasy, romance, whimsy, and political satire. Involving a leprechaun, a crock of gold, a labor organizer, a bigoted Southern senator, some sharecroppers, and a dancing mute, it's a delightful, touching show, managing to combine sharp social criticism with warm sentiment.

The plot is almost impossible to summarize, but on Broadway in 1947, it all worked like a charm, lasting 725 performances at the 46th Street now the Richard Rodgers Theatre. With music by Burton Lane and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, Finian's Rainbow possesses what's inarguably one of the best of all golden-age Broadway scores. From "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Look to the Rainbow" to "Old Devil Moon," "If This Isn't Love," "Something Sort of Grandish," and "That Great Come-and-Get-It Day," Finian's Rainbow's songs are enchanting, the delicious melodies graced by the wittiest of words.

But because of its approach to racial issues, companies like New York City Opera and Encores! have shied away from the show, and a pre-Broadway revival that folded after a couple of road engagements felt the need of a revised book by Peter Stone. The action includes that bigoted senator being turned black so he can experience what it feels like to be black in America. In an earlier satiric scene, a young black man is taught how to shuffle so as to be able to properly serve the senator.

If the book by Harburg and Fred Saidy sometimes takes what may now seem to be a simplistic approach to its message of racial tolerance, the hearts of the show's authors were indisputably in the right place. As Harburg stated in a note reproduced in the new CD's booklet, "Why should there be a thing like racism?.... We thought of a way we could prick the bubble of this idiocy, and reduce all this to absurdity....In order to show the folly of racism, we used a dramatic form that would help everyone laugh this prejudice out of existence-the musical play."

In the spring of this year, the Irish Repertory Theatre presented Finian's Rainbow in a staged-concert presentation that was not only a charmer but demonstrated that there was nothing whatsoever to fear in Finian's Rainbow if one presented it with a straightforward, honest approach. With a few cuts in the script, the IRT production was a joyful outing, the peerless score holding up wonderfully, the book still amusing and affecting.

But recording the IRT Finian's Rainbow presents a problem. There are already three recordings of the score: Columbia's original 1947 Broadway cast; RCA's cast recording of the 1960 City Center production that transferred to the 46th Street Theatre for a two-week Broadway run; and the soundtrack album of the 1968 film that starred Petula Clark, Fred Astaire, and Tommy Steele.

All of these recordings are excellent, the two stage versions boasting the orchestrations of a pair of masters, Robert Russell Bennett and Don Walker. But the Irish Repertory mounting was accompanied by just two pianos, ably played by Mark Hartman and Mark Janas. And so is Ghostlight's new recording of the IRT production, the first stage-cast recording of Finian's Rainbow since 1960 and the most complete recording of the score to date.

What made the IRT Finian's Rainbow special was its pair of leads, reuniting from Amour Melissa Errico and Malcolm Gets. Errico, the first soprano Sharon on disc, sings with great purity and prettiness, lovely in "Look to the Rainbow" and "Old Devil Moon," crisp in "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich." Errico's replacement in the production, Kerry O'Malley, graciously appears among the ensemble singers on the recording. Gets is superb in the leprechaun's "Something Sort of Grandish" and "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love."

In the romantic male lead, Max von Essen Dance of the Vampires sounds quite good in "Old Devil Moon" and "If This Isn't Love." The role of Finian has almost nothing to sing, but Jonathan Freeman is heard in a few brief sequences of dialogue and song. Terri White makes an impression with a big, deep "Necessity," yet another of the score's great numbers. At the end, there's a bonus track of Harburg singing "Old Devil Moon."

It remains the case that one needs to have at least one of the Finian's recordings with the original orchestrations to get the full Broadway effect. But the score is so grandish and Gets and Errico so delish that the new CD is solidly enjoyable, almost managing to transcend its lack of an orchestra. That lack may ultimately disqualify the recording for some, but it's a fine document of a sweet production. And it appears that none other than Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are at least partly to thank, as they are credited with "the extraordinary generosity" that made the recording possible.

IN YOUR DREAMS: CHRISTINE EBERSOLE WITH BILLY STRITCH Ghostlight

42nd Street Tony winner Christine Ebersole has one previous solo disc, capturing her "Live at the Cinegrill" in Hollywood in 1997. That act was directed by Hairspray co-author Scott Wittman.

On her new Ghostlight disc, she repeats two songs from that act, "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" and "My Ship," the latter recalling her Encores! concert of Lady in the Dark. But In Your Dreams documents a more recent cabaret performance, one that pairs the singer with Billy Stritch, with whom she also shared the stage in 42nd Street. Stritch is at the piano, joining in on many of the vocals and going solo on a couple of numbers, with David Finck's bass the other contributor.

The program is heavy on show tunes, including "Fine and Dandy," "Baby, Dream Your Dream," "Nobody Else But Me," "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York," "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" Ebersole was a superb Ado Annie in the 1979 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, and three songs featured in 42nd Street.

Ebersole is vocally versatile, able to range from full-blown soprano to brassy belter. Here, she stays mostly in the middle, exercising easy, smooth, jazzy, mid-range tones to very attractive effect. "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" is quite fine, and there's a dramatic "Lullaby of Broadway" as well as a languid "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" that builds to a big finish. On "My Ship," Ebersole emulates the sound of a trumpet during one improvisatory section.

Unlike the act documented on the Cinegrill disc, this one was not recorded live, so there's no indication of Ebersole's gifts as a raconteur and comic personality. Here, she's strictly the singer and musician, and she acquits herself well on both counts.