ROGERS — Back in the States - in Arkansas, specifically - Nellie Forbush’s mother has a view of whom her daughter should marry.
That man is not Emile de Becque, a Frenchman with two Polynesian children living in self-imposed exile in an island community far, far away from the United States.
Letters from home tell Nellie, a nurse stationed in the South Pacific, of the expectations of a girl “as normal as blueberry pie,” as Nellie describes herself in the song “A Wonderful Guy.”
But it’s also in that song that Forbush realizes she’s in love with Emile.
This is the central conflict within “South Pacific,” the famed Broadway musical that is coming to Rogers Little Theater’s Victory Theater for a three-weekend run that begins tonight.
It is a show about race and love, played against the backdrop of sunsets over the ocean, palm trees on the beach and the gun towers of the war that has the U.S. military visiting the island.
Some of the sting of race has faded over time, says Ed McClure, who is directing the show for Rogers Little Theater. Many of the young cast members said they knew little of the racial tensions that had a grip on the country when “South Pacific,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was firstproduced in 1949.
“For kids in their 20s and 30s, they didn’t get that,” McClure says. “Look at how far we’ve come!”
That progress has been made does not steal the central message from the play, McClure says.
“We’ve all been in situationswhere we were in love with someone who our parents would say is the wrong person,” he says. “Those themes transcend time.”
In so many ways, the show is about those characters, such as Nellie, Emile and soldier Luther Billis (played by Travis Mitchell), who exceed our expectations, McClure says.
The play follows the central characters as they interact on the island. Nellie (played by Cynthia Bradford) is serving as a nurse. She meets Emile (played by Ron Sasine) who has started a plantation in the islands after fleeing France.
They both cross paths with Lt. Joseph Cable (played byAdam Powell) who has been sent to the South Pacific on a reconnaissance mission.
Cable’s endeavor is to use Emile as a resource for his covert operation, but the Frenchman hesitates because he fears his life will be in danger if he offers help for the mission.
RLT’s production features a cast of more than two dozen and a nine-member orchestra.
The show in Rogers follows on the heels of a successful Broadway revival of “South Pacific” and a national touring version that stopped at the Walton Arts Center earlier this year.
McClure says RLT’sversion of the show has been tightened down from a sometimes lengthy production to one that comes in at about two hours.
“We staged it in such a way that we could expedite it,” McClure says - all without major trims to the script. The scenes blend together, so the transitional periods are short.
It still very much resembles the original Broadway show, which McClure calls a “treasured” musical.
There may indeed be a little treasure buried in the sands of these islands. It’s in the overarching message of the musical: Love’s redeeming power overcomes all.
Whats Up, Pages 14 on 07/30/2010