"I do think that the politics of the book need to be engaged with in some way by the production to bring the musical into the present."
Okay, but "the politics of the book need to be engaged with in some way" sounds very amorphous to me, and since you didn't see these revivals, I really don't think you should comment that they DIDN'T do so.
I agree with you about the climax of the Coppola film. I don't remember if this is in the original show script, but in the movie, Sharon is labeled a "witch" by the villains of the piece, after her wish turns Senator Rawkins into a black man. And then, at the climax of the movie, the villains attempt to burn Sharon (and Woody) to death by setting to flames the barn they're locked into. So, in this way, the movie also references the Communist "witch hunts" of the HUAC era, which occurred between the time the original production of FINIAN'S RAINBOW played on Broadway and the movie was made 20 years later. Very, very neat. |
