The most iconic scene from Finian’s Rainbow is “That Old Devil Moon,” the romantic ballad sung by Finian’s daughter Sharon at the opening of Act II. Originally composed by Burton Lane with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg for the 1947 Broadway musical, this number has become the production’s most enduring contribution to American musical theater.
The song’s magnetic combination of melody and theatricality has secured its place as one of the most recorded standards of the 20th century, with over 100 recorded versions by artists spanning multiple genres and decades. Beyond the song itself, the scene functions as a pivotal emotional moment in the narrative—a counterpoint to the more surreal and politically charged magical sequences that define the show’s visual language. What made this particular number iconic wasn’t merely its musical composition, but how it served as a vehicle for world-class performers to deliver genuine human emotion within a fantastical story about Irish leprechauns and their supernatural interventions in American life.
Table of Contents
- Why “That Old Devil Moon” Became Broadway’s Most Memorable Number
- The Magical Transformation and Racial Commentary
- From Stage to Screen—How the 1968 Film Adapted the Iconic Scenes
- The Cultural Impact of the Leprechaun’s Gold
- Why the Film Failed to Capture the Theatrical Magic
- The Song’s Enduring Legacy in Music History
- The Visual Spectacle of Magical Realism in Musical Theater
Why “That Old Devil Moon” Became Broadway’s Most Memorable Number
The longevity of “That Old Devil Moon” lies in its perfect balance of accessibility and sophistication. Burton Lane’s melody is immediately memorable—it doesn’t require specialized vocal technique or extensive musical training to recognize and hum. E.Y. Harburg’s lyrics capture a moment of romantic vulnerability without resorting to cliché, managing to express genuine desire through carefully chosen language.
The song’s structure allows for interpretation: it can be sung as a straightforward love ballad, as a woman wrestling with conflicting emotions, or as a meditation on attraction itself. The song has been recorded by artists as diverse as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and contemporary jazz musicians, demonstrating its cross-generational appeal. Unlike novelty numbers from Broadway’s Golden Age that often feel dated, “That Old Devil Moon” maintains its emotional resonance regardless of era or performance style. It appears in numerous films, television productions, and compilations focused on Broadway standards—a testament to how thoroughly it has embedded itself in American musical culture.
The Magical Transformation and Racial Commentary
The pot of gold sequence functions as Finian’s Rainbow’s most visually striking and thematically complex moment. In this scene, the magical crock of gold—the central McGuffin driving the entire plot—causes a white Southern businessman to physically transform into a Black man. What would have been dismissed as offensive magical realism in a lesser production becomes, in Finian’s Rainbow, the mechanism through which the show explores racial prejudice and American identity. The businessman’s panic at his transformation forces both him and the audience to confront the arbitrary nature of racial categorization and the systemic inequalities built upon it.
For 1947, this approach to racial commentary was genuinely major. The show didn’t simply discuss prejudice through dialogue; it visualized it through the fantastical logic of musical theater. The magical transformation strips away social pretense and forces the character to experience, however briefly, the reality of Black American life in a deeply racist society. The limitation of this approach, however, lies in its reliance on magical circumstances to generate empathy—the transformation is temporary, reversible, and ultimately fantastical in a way that trivializes actual lived experience.
From Stage to Screen—How the 1968 Film Adapted the Iconic Scenes
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1968 film adaptation, released on June 27, 1968, attempted to translate Finian’s Rainbow’s theatrical magic into cinematic language. The transformation scene presented particular challenges: what reads as heightened theatrical symbolism on stage risks becoming either cartoonish or uncomfortable when rendered through film’s literal visual medium. Coppola’s interpretation leaned into the visual spectacle, employing color cinematography and special effects to emphasize the surrealism of the moment.
The film’s critical reception, however, was mixed to negative. Reviewers noted that the magical sequences—the very elements that had defined the show’s theatrical power—didn’t translate effectively to the cinema. Stage magic functions through audience complicity and theatrical convention; film demands either photorealistic grounding or a different visual language altogether. By attempting to replicate theatrical surrealism on screen, the adaptation fell between aesthetic worlds, satisfying neither those seeking authentic Broadway theater nor those expecting film’s particular strengths.
The Cultural Impact of the Leprechaun’s Gold
The leprechaun character and his crock of gold operate as the story’s magical engine, setting all plot complications in motion. In American musical theater, where plots often serve primarily as scaffolding for songs and spectacle, Finian’s Rainbow uses its magical premise to explore genuine questions about identity, belonging, and social obligation. The gold doesn’t simply cause chaos for comedic effect; its transformative properties force characters to confront their own assumptions and prejudices.
Compared to other Broadway fantasies of the era—The Wizard of Oz, for instance—Finian’s Rainbow distinguishes itself through its explicit engagement with American social issues. Oz presents a magical world entirely separate from American reality; Finian’s Rainbow brings Irish magic into direct contact with American racial and class structures, creating friction and revelation. The leprechaun’s motivation—he’s attempting to recover his stolen gold—provides a plot driver that never overshadows the human drama unfolding around it.
Why the Film Failed to Capture the Theatrical Magic
The 1968 film’s struggle to preserve the show’s theatrical essence reveals fundamental differences between stage and film as mediums. Theatrical magic relies on suggestion, on audience imagination completing what the stage presents. A transformation on stage can be achieved through lighting, costume changes, and theatrical convention—tools that audiences accept within theater’s agreed-upon rules.
Film’s photorealism, conversely, demands explicit visual effects to achieve similar moments, and 1968 effects technology couldn’t smoothly accomplish what theatrical stagecraft had managed for decades. A specific limitation of the film adaptation: Coppola’s version added substantial original material and altered key sequences, attempting to open up the theatrical story for film but in the process diluting what made the stage version distinctive. The spectacle that had seemed revolutionary in a Broadway theater felt overwrought when rendered through cinema’s different visual grammar. The film’s box office and critical performance suffered as a result, and it remains largely relegated to the background of both Coppola’s filmography and Finian’s Rainbow’s cultural legacy.
The Song’s Enduring Legacy in Music History
“That Old Devil Moon” has achieved a status within American popular music rarely matched by single songs from musical theater productions. Its appearance in over 100 recordings represents not casual covers but serious engagements with a standard—musicians returning to it repeatedly because each generation finds new aspects to explore. Jazz musicians have deconstructed its harmonic structure; classical singers have incorporated it into recitals; pop artists have reimagined its melody.
The song’s durability partly stems from its ambiguity. The title phrase itself—”that old devil moon”—personifies a force beyond human control, suggesting both romance’s irrationality and its inevitability. Different performers emphasize different emotional registers: some versions emphasize longing, others desire, still others a kind of resigned acceptance. This interpretive flexibility has allowed the song to remain vital across stylistic changes and cultural shifts.
The Visual Spectacle of Magical Realism in Musical Theater
Finian’s Rainbow arrived at a moment when American musical theater was wrestling with how to integrate serious social commentary with entertainment spectacle. The show didn’t choose between political engagement and theatrical magic; it used magic as the vehicle for political meaning. The visual transformation sequences served a dual purpose: they generated theatrical excitement while forcing audiences to contemplate uncomfortable social realities.
The pot of gold scene, in particular, demonstrates how musical theater’s heightened theatrical language could address subjects that straight drama often handled with more heavy-handed earnestness. By wrapping racial commentary in magical spectacle, Finian’s Rainbow allowed audiences to experience the emotional and intellectual content without the defensive barriers that might arise from more direct social realism. The 1968 film adaptation ultimately underestimated this theatrical alchemy—it attempted to “explain” the magic through film effects rather than trusting in the power of what the stage had already perfected.
