Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- There’s a little bit of everything in the musical “Finian’s Rainbow”: Romance and satire, whimsy and cynicism, fairy tale and political diatribe. It is, above all, good. Revived last season in concert form by “Encores!’’ and duly enlarged, it has now transferred to Broadway.

Dating from 1947, its liberal, anticapitalism, antiracism message still resonates as it gleefully scrambles Irish mythology, magical fantasy and, of course, a love story.

With snappy text by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Fred Saidy, frolicsome lyrics by Harburg, and endearing melodies by Burton Lane (the score includes such gems as “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” “Old Devil Moon” and “Look to the Rainbow”), it makes a virtue of not hitting any of its facets too hard before flitting on.

Into romantic Rainbow Valley in Missitucky state comes elderly Irishman Finian McLonergan with his spirited daughter Sharon and the crock of gold he has lifted from the leprechaun Og, so as to bury it near Fort Knox, where the soil, he figures, is conducive to yielding a rich crop of gold.

But supremacist Senator Billboard Rawkins has bought up all the land around Rainbow Valley for his evil capitalist purposes and only the poor but valiant valley folk, black and brotherly white alike, have a precarious hold on the tobacco-rich area (this, in that long-ago time when smoking was still a good thing).

Heart Throb

The sharecroppers’ hero is young Woody Mahoney, who returns from the Big City just in time to lead the resistance to Rawkins and capture Sharon’s hitherto virginal heart. His sister, Susan, mute from birth, but able to express herself through dance, leads the welcomers.

Og, too, materializes in pursuit of his crock, without which he becomes progressively more human and girl crazy, this proving a mixed blessing. Adding to the mayhem is the time- honored fairy-tale convention of three wishes, granted at sometimes inapt moments.

The revival is blessed with wonderful leads. Jim Norton is surely everybody’s dream roisterous Irishman, with enough sparkle in his eyes to light up the last row of the balcony. Never has the brogue sounded prettier -- unless from the lips of Kate Baldwin, a tall, robust Sharon and as entrancing as she is temperamental: actress, singer, dancer and nonpareil of a sweetheart.

Og, Of Bog

She is partnered to a fare-thee-well by the Woody of Cheyenne Jackson, a remarkable blend of ease and intensity, unaffected virility and spontaneous gallantry. Christopher Fitzgerald is the funniest Og that ever left the bog -- up to the legendary David Wayne, the role’s original creator. Fitzgerald’s nimbleness of tongue matches his limberness of legs, allowing us to follow as the rise of the human overtakes the sprite.

Rawkins, whom Sharon’s wish inadvertently but opportunely turns from white into black, is embodied with equal colorfulness and expertise by David Schramm and Chuck Cooper. The transformation itself is a piece of stagecraft worthy of magic.

Alina Faye dances Susan’s mute eloquence expressively, although Warren Carlyle, who both choreographed and directed, is in this instance more workmanlike than transcendent.

John Lee Beatty’s witty, stylized set is every bit as fine as his spectacularly realistic ones (e.g., for “The Royal Family” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs”); Toni-Leslie James’s costumes conjure up both rags and riches and Ken Billington’s lighting never runs out of jolts.

Rob Berman and the orchestra do ample justice to a score that for winsomeness as well as feistiness has few equals. I was once so under the spell of “Old Devil Moon” on my car radio that I drove right off an embankment. You may well be thankful for the cradling safety of your theater seats.

At the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St. Information: +1- 212-239-6262; visit http://www.telecharge.com. Rating: ****

What the Stars Mean:
****       Do Not Miss
***        Excellent
**         Good
*          Poor
(No stars) Worthless

(John Simon is the New York drama critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: John Simon in New York at jis1925@aol.com.

Last Updated: October 31, 2009 00:01 EDT