THEATER REVIEW : Cast Brings a Golden Glow to ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ : The story involving leprechauns and love gets carried along by the memorable and witty score.

You can count on the Camarillo Community Theatre for the consistently best-produced musicals in Ventura County. Though its budget may be less than those of larger companies and its facilities not as fancy, the Camarillo group shows imagination in its selection of material and talent in its presentation.

Such is the case with its current presentation, the Irish-American fantasy “Finian’s Rainbow.” As the song says, it’s something sort of grandish.

The musical, which debuted on Broadway in January, 1947, is set in Rainbow Valley, in the fictional state of Missitucky. A local senator is buying up all the cotton farmers’ land, hoping to prevent something much like the Tennessee Valley Authority from moving in and industrializing the area.

Along come Finian McLonergan and his daughter, Sharon, newly arrived from Ireland and closely pursued by a leprechaun, Og. He’s in pursuit of the pot of gold that Finian has stolen--or borrowed, as Finian would have it--from him. There’s also a subplot stemming from the senator’s racial prejudice and still-timely intolerance (“My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants,” he exclaims, “ . . . ever since they came to this country.”)

There are a couple of romances, and everybody winds up happy at the end--even the senator, who has learned his lesson. Songs including “That Old Devil Moon,” “How Are Things in Glocca Morra” and “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love” emerged as standards from the tuneful and frequently witty E.Y. Harburg-Burton Lane score. (Harburg also wrote the show’s book, along with Fred Faidly).

At the reins are Linda Steigler as director and co-choreographer, musical director Diann Alexander, and co-choreographers Carol Gwynn Barnes and Debbie Probe--who is seen as Susan the Silent, who communicates by dancing.

Steigler has assembled a capable cast, including several faces familiar to local audiences and a number of newcomers. Kimberly and Mitchell Neill, wed in real life, here co-star as romantic leads Sharon and Woody, a Rainbow Valley townsman just returned from a broadening stint in the Merchant Marine. Lloyd Allen, memorable for his roles in this group’s “1776” and “The Pirates of Penzance,” plays the gentle, irascible Finian, and Wade Powers is seen as the sprightly (and somewhat oversized) sprite, Og.

Among the supporting cast are Richard Hawkes as the senator, Curtis Marsden as the sheriff, Bob Decker as the senator’s aide (who has a wonderful couple of scenes with Steven Thrasher, in which the aide demonstrates how a black man should shuffle (like in “Gone With the Wind,” he explains) in order to land a job as the senator’s butler.

Of special note are a number of particularly capable young actors, and the participation of more African Americans than have been seen in any local production for several years.

The Camarillo group performs in an elderly high school auditorium at the Camarillo Airport, and sometimes the physical aspects of a production are a bit shaky. Here, the special effects fall so flat that you might not notice them at all, though Finian does get a presentable rainbow at the end. But in terms of talent, enthusiasm and overall good feeling, this show is a hard one to beat.

Details

* WHAT: Finian’s Rainbow.

* WHEN: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 7 p.m., through Oct. 8. Sunday matinee, 2 p.m. Oct. 2 only.

* WHERE: Camarillo Airport Theater, 330 Skyway Drive, on the grounds of Camarillo Airport.

* COST: $10 general admission; $8 students, seniors and active military; $5 children under 12. There’s a special family rate of $25 for two adults and four children under 13. Additional group rates are available.

* FYI: For reservations or further information, call 388-5716. Tickets may also be purchased at Paseo Stationers in the Las Posas Plaza, and at Henson’s Music in Camarillo.