All About Musicals

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical South Pacific opened on April 3 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont theatre. (Previews began March 1.) It garnered nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize when it debuted more than 50 years ago. This is the musical’s first Broadway revival since its 1949 stage debut.

Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara (last seen in The Light in the Piazza) and baritone Paulo Szot play the two lovers (Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque) who meet “some enchanted evening.” Matthew Morrison, who was O’Hara’s love interest in Piazza, stars as Lt. Cable.

This production of South Pacific features a 30-piece orchestra conducted by Tony Award winner Ted Sperling. Thanks to Tony Award-winning designer Michael Yeargan, the set is massive and features a 1940’s bomber plane, not to mention palm trees and lush beaches.

According to Playbill, “the new Lincoln Center staging includes the song ‘My Girl Back Home.’ A duet between Lt. Cable and Nellie Forbush, the song was cut from the original Broadway production but reinstated for the 1958 film adaptation. The current production, which marks South Pacific’s first Broadway revival since its 1949 stage debut, utilizes that song’s original orchestrations.”

Press notes describe South Pacific:

Based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories “Tales of the South Pacific,” the musical focuses on French plantation owner Emile de Becque and his love interest, Nellie Forbush, a naïve young nurse from Arkansas. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, South Pacific offers a lushly romantic score while challenging audiences with themes of racial intolerance and bigotry.

[source: Playbill]