Finian's Rainbow

Act One

The scene opens on the green and fertile tobacco fields and rolling, wooded hills of fictional, yet familiar, Missitucky U.S.A., latter half of the 1940s. We are at the town meetin’ place, a little green space featuring a wishing well and an old tree. The scene is a peaceful spring morning with only the harmonica of Sunny the sharecropper to disturb the air, but soon Buzz Collins and the Sheriff enter, pinning up a notice that this particular bit of Rainbow Valley is to be auctioned off in payment of back taxes, and try to proceed with the auction straightaway. Sharecroppers assemble and protest that this is only a trick of Senator Billboard Rawkins to get their land. Susan Mahoney (the Silent) enters, and with the boy Henry translating, tells them to wait for the auction, because her brother Woody is on his way with the money. Joyful and defiant, the sharecroppers chase Buzz and the Sheriff off the stage (“This Time of the Year”).

Finian and Sharon enter. They have traveled