“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”: Vilifying Capitalism and Prejudice Through a Socialist Utopia in Finian's Rainbow

Abstract

What does a leprechaun have to do with racial integration in America? Though they seem unrelated, the 1947 musical Finian’s Rainbow by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy uses the integration of Irish mythology and socialist utopian ideals to promote the racial integration of the American South. Finian’s Rainbow is set in the fictional American town of Rainbow Valley, Missitucky. The town, inhabited by people of different colors living in harmony, symbolizes an American utopia threatened by the dangers of capitalism and racism. So where does the leprechaun fit in? Having followed Irish immigrants Finian and his daughter Sharon to Rainbow Valley to retrieve his pot of gold, the leprechaun enhances the magical quality of a place as idealistic as Glocca Morra, a kind of Irish Eden. His magic allows for the otherwise impossible physical and mental transformations of a racist senator named Billboard Rawkins, the play’s main source of conflict. Finian’s Rainbow is a political satire and relies on specific historical references and allusions. Therefore, this paper will analyze the energies of the text from the perspective of new historicism. Using Marxist theory and the theories of Michel Foucault, this paper will explore how lyricist and playwright E.Y. Harburg, influenced by socialist rhetoric, illustrates an integrated, magical, American utopia which highlights and satirizes the very real problems caused by Post-WWII capitalist and racist ideology in the United States.