Wash Those High School Shows Right Out of Your Mind

Courtesy of Joan Marcus

Lincoln Center’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, which opened last week, joins the current acclaimed revivals of Gypsy and Sunday in the Park With George in what—save for Grease—may be the strongest season for musical revivals in recent memory. Like Sunday in the Park, another rare Pulitzer-winning musical, South Pacific is being revived on Broadway for the first time in its history, and it’s about time.

Let’s cut right to the chase. The show is brilliant—so satisfying and so fulfilling, in fact, that it will almost completely erase all those awful high school productions from your memory. From Bartlett Sher’s (The Light in the Piazza) gentle, seamless direction to the smallest nuances of Michael Yeargan’s expansive set, to say that it’s impressive isn’t even close to enough.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 sweeping romance depicts two parallel love stories which take place during World War II on two islands in the South Pacific. Nellie Forbush, a young navy nurse from Arkansas, is swept off her feet by French plantation owner Emile De Beque. American Lieutenant Joe Cable finds himself in love with Liat, a native of the island, though they can barely speak to each other. But when Nellie discovers that Emile has fathered two children with his now-deceased Polynesian wife, she becomes upset. Cable refuses to marry Liat because of her ethnicity. Hammerstein’s work is known for its social and political consciousness, especially in his collaborations with Rodgers. Even today, when we might want to believe otherwise, South Pacific’s dealings with the horrors of war and prejudice are hardly dated.

Kelli O’Hara (Nellie) is one of those performers who seems to have it all—a stunning voice, gorgeous looks, enviable dancing and acting ability. But all of her technical perfection still leaves something to be desired. She is more than commendable, but lacks that spark which would make for a career-defining performance. Brazilian opera star Paulo Szot makes his Broadway debut as De Beque in a performance that is both powerful and delicately emotional. The ever-versatile Danny Burstein is perfectly endearing as quirky, comical Seabee Luther Billis, and Matthew Morrison is well-sung, if a little stiff, as Cable. Making her Broadway debut as well, Loretta Ables Sayre tackles the meaty role of Bloody Mary with temerity, though the haunting “Bali Ha’i” is not quite as eerie as it should be.

The real star of the show, however, is its legendary score. It’s packed with classics—like “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy,” “Cockeyed Optimist,” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair”—that any respectable theater fan probably grew up listening to. To hear them played live by a thirty-piece pit orchestra is to experience musical glory at its finest. The score may be a bit old-fashioned, but they certainly don’t write them like this anymore.

The revival’s few imperfections are slight in the face of such overall magnificence. South Pacific proves that it’s deserving of its status as one of the greatest classics of the American musical theater, withstanding the test of time with its dignity, humor and beauty intact. So hurry and see it—you don’t want to have to wait another fifty years.