An Emperor and a Leprechaun

Two remarkable — and remarkably different — plays have been revived in New York City.  One was the playwright’s first box office success and dealt with a black man’s descent into madness; the other, a musical,  ran nearly two years on post-World War II Broadway and then suffered from changes in views on race in America.

    “The Emperor Jones,†Eugene O’Neill’s 70-minute study of Brutus Jones, the self-proclaimed ruler of an unnamed Caribbean island, is loosely based on the story of Henri Christophe, who, after the island’s rebellion against France, ruled northern Haiti as king from 1811-20.    

   O’Neill took Christophe’s story and made it into a psychological thriller:  Jones, an American who has come to the island to escape the law and then set himself up as emperor demanding tribute from the natives,  now finds that his subjects have retreated into the jungle and plan him harm.  As he tries to escape through the same jungle toward the harbor and safety, he loses his way.  During the long, moonless night he imagines enemies everywhere and experiences hallucinations before being shot by the rebels with a silver bullet, the only bullet Jones had declared could kill him.

   The Irish RepertoryTheater has given “Jones†a remarkable production.  Atmospheric lighting and actors costumed as frightening jungle trees and plants are background for an astonishing performance from John Douglas Thompson.  His deterioration from swaggering monarch to pitiful madman is Lear-like in its intensity and poignancy.

    More cheerfully, “Finian’s Rainbow†is in revival at the St. James theater. This must be the happiest, most tuneful show on Broadway.  The afternoon I saw it, the audience leapt to its feet and cheered at the final curtain.

   “ Finian’s†is a simple story: The Irishman Finian has stolen a pot of leprechaun gold and brought it and his daughter Sharon to America, where he plans to bury it near Ft. Knox and turn the ground into a gold field.  The leprechaun Og follows to get back the gold since without it he will turn human.

Sharon almost immediately meets Woody and falls in love. Problems ensue:  a venal, racist senator wants to buy the land where the gold is buried and evict the black sharecroppers, Og turns the senator black to endure the effects of racism, and all ends happily.

   Along the way, glorious music — “How Are Things in Glocca Morra,†“Look to the Rainbow,†“Old Devil Moon,† “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love,†and lyrics and surprisingly sprightly and timely dialogue charm and surprise: foreclosure, living on credit, even the GOP figure in the play.

   The cast is perfect.  Jim Norton is a delightful Finian. Kate Baldwin and Cheyenne Jackson are the handsome, big-voiced lovers; and Christopher Fitzgerald makes Og the most charming leprechaun you’ll ever meet.

And Terri White as Dottie brings her real-life story of living on the streets and her huge voice to “Necessity,†a show-stopper if ever there was one.

   “The Emperor Jones†plays at the SoHo Playhouse:  212-691-1555. “Finian’s Rainbow†is at the St. James Theater. Tickets: stjames-theater.com