FAYETTEVILLE — Although it’s often been tackled by community theaters, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” took nearly half a century to make it back to Broadway.
Critics say the Lincoln Center revival, now on tour and coming Tuesday to the Walton Arts Center, was well worth the wait.
“It’s easy to understand why the original won 10 and the revival seven Tony Awards,” writes Jeff Korbelik of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star.
“The musical is a joy to watch.”
“(This) incredibly vibrant production manages to be truthful and relevant;
you’re likely to forget every other ‘South Pacific’ you’ve seen previously,” agrees Theatermania.com.
“It proves that a revival can be the freshest show in town,” adds David Edward Hughes, writing in Seattle, Wash.
The Undertaking
Director Bartlett Sher says the script was not what he expected.
“I was very, very, very, very surprised when I came back to it and saw how extraordinarily far-thinking Rodgers and Hammerstein were in 1949,” says Sher, who directed the Craig Lucas-Adam Guettel musical “The Light in the Piazza” and the revival of “Awake and Sing,” both of which also earned Tony honors.
“Other productions have lightened or watered down or made more palatable the original, very profound message,” he adds. “What’s beautiful about this is it has that girl from Little Rock, Ark., in the middle of it. She’s not a racist, just a kid who grewup in a certain world, and it’s incredible that she changes.” The Story
As the story unfolds, Nellie Forbush, a naive young Navy nurse from Arkansas, becomes romantically involved with Emile de Becque, a French plantation owner on a South Pacific island. Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine, Lt. Joe Cable, arrives on the island on an undercover mission crucial to the outcome of the war - and he falls for a Tonkinese girl, Liat.
“The sweeping romantic story” reveals how the happiness of the two couples “is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices,” says WAC spokeswoman Bethany Goodwin.
The story is based on James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1948 novel, “Tales of the South Pacific,” and the musical won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1950. Several of its songs, including “Bali Ha’i,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Happy Talk,” “Younger than Springtime” and “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy,” have become worldwide standards.
The Moral
“I think it’s one of the great musicals written about American life,” says Sher, the director. “This has songs everybody knows, a lot of them about America and what an amazing country it is.
“A girl from Arkansas and a boy from Philadelphia encounter very complex situations, change and come to this amazing new place, and all this over the course of a good ol’ American musical,” he says.
“It was very extraordinary in the time they wrote it - and it’s also really entertaining and really fun.”
One critic wrote that “‘South Pacific’ might seem a tough sell in a politically correct climate,” but Sher disagrees.
“I find audiences generally smart and demanding,” he says.
“If something is genuinely good, even if it’s dark, it’s appreciated.
“The main thing people always misunderstand is that their entertainment should all be easy,” Sher adds. “This is real entertainment. What I love about the piece is seeing a time when we as Americans were not as good as we are now, but we got through those times and got better.” The Performances
“South Pacific,” with a cast of 34 and a 26-member orchestra, comes to the Walton Arts Center for performances at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. April 2; 2 and 8 p.m. April 3; and 2 and 7 p.m. April 4. Tickets start at $30.50 by calling 443-5600.
Whats Up, Pages 11 on 03/26/2010