| South Pacific |
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| Written by Michael Portantiere | |
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South Pacific Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan Directed by Bartlett Sher Starring Kelli O'Hara, Paulo Szot, Matthew Morrison, Danny Burstein, and Loretta Ables Sayre Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont lincolncentertheater.com  Paulo Szot and Kelli O'Hara in SOUTH PACIFIC; photo by Joan Marcus Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific, the musical has an interesting history. The original Broadway production was a huge hit in 1949, and the property became so beloved that even the mostly awful 1958 film version did well at the box office. Since then, however, SP seems to have lagged behind R&H's Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, and The Sound of Music in popularity. Some people feel that, as the only R&H show set in the time period when it was written, it has not aged well -- particularly in terms of the Hammerstein/Logan dialogue. Well, the Lincoln Center production explodes that opinion, restoring the show to its rightful place among the greatest achievements of the American musical theater (and helping us forget the infelicities of the 1958 film, the very different but equally poor 2001 TV movie that starred Glenn Close, and the 2005 Carnegie Hall concert presentation with Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell). The show's twin plots revolve around Ensign Nellie Forbush and Lt. Joe Cable, a navy nurse and a marine whose respective romances with a French planter and a native girl in the South Pacific at the height of WWII lead them to face nasty truths about their own prejudices. To quote one of Hammerstein's most pointed lyrics, Nellie and Joe come to realize that they, like so many other Americans, are inherently “afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade.” This is made clearer than ever before at Lincoln Center, partly due to the restoration of some lines that were cut from the original production. For example, Nellie uses the derogatory term “colored” in reference to the mother of Emile de Becque's children -- though she stops short of using the “n” word, which does appear in the Michener novel. Another wise restoration is “My Girl Back Home,” a lovely duet in which Cable and Nellie remark how different the world of the South Pacific is from the lives they knew back home in Philadelphia and Little Rock. (The number is included in the 1958 film but in the wrong slot, late in the action. Here it comes much earlier, serving the dual purpose of letting us learn more about the characters and allowing us to see them bond emotionally.) In another highly effective move, director Bartlett Sher includes three African Americans among the U.S. military men but keeps them segregated from the “whites” and subtly makes us aware of the racial tension between the two groups. All of this has the effect of stressing the show's over-arching theme without hitting the audience over the head with a sledgehammer. The creative team of the Lincoln Center production cannot be praised highly enough. Sher's direction is stellar, from his work with the performers (see below for a few exceptions) to the fact that -- as was the case with the original South Pacific way back in '49 -- the scene changes happen seamlessly, lending the show a cinematic feel. Christopher Gattelli provides just enough musical staging for “There Is Nothin' Like a Dame” to make the number a crowd pleaser without causing the men to look silly, and he has come up with some fun dance steps for the “Thanksgiving Follies” sequence. Michael Yeargan's sets use the full width and depth of the Vivian Beaumont Theater's large stage to create a gorgeous world of sand dunes, sea, and sky, beautifully lit by Donald Holder. Catherine Zuber's costumes are right on the money, and Scott Lehrer gives us the precious gift of the most natural, unobtrusive sound design to be heard on Broadway in decades. Speaking of precious gifts, Ted Sperling leads a lush-sounding 30-piece orchestra (!!) through this great score. Kelli O'Hara is sheer perfection as Nellie, singing beautifully and offering a somewhat more mature, less hick-like portrayal of the young Navy nurse than usual, yet without stinting on the charm. Paulo Szot is a revelation as Emile de Becque; he sings the classic “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine” in a mellifluous, full-voiced baritone but never bellows, his acting is wonderfully nuanced, and his French accent is impeccable. Together, O'Hara and Szot have so much chemistry that you know Nellie and Emile are fated to be mated by show's end. Some of the other performances are less successful. As the ultimately tragic Cable, Matthew Morrison looks great but makes some very odd acting choices, and his singing is affected -- not to mention the fact that he has trouble with a few of the high notes. Loretta Ables Sayre is the right type for Bloody Mary, yet her characterization is rather lacking in humor, and the jazz-tinged phrasing and inflections she brings to “Bali H'ai” and “Happy Talk” are a little jarring. (I kept flashing back to Sarah Vaughan's recordings of these songs.) Skipp Sudduth seems uncomfortable in the role of Captain Brackett, delivering his lines in such a way that we're always aware he's acting. On the plus side, Danny Burstein is terrific as that smooth operator Luther Billis, managing to give a broadly comic performance in the context of this generally subtle production without sticking out like a sore thumb. Sean Cullen and George Merrick are just right as Cmdr. William Harbison and Lt. Buzz Adams; Li Jun Li is exquisitely beautiful and touching as Cable's lover, Liat; and Laurissa Romain and Luka Kain are Adorable with a capital “A” as Emile's children, Ngana and Jerome. The members of the large ensemble create fully realized portraits of the various Seabees, sailors, and nurses. It says much about the overall excellence of this production that it's only very slightly compromised by a few problematic performances. The original South Pacific was such a hit that it gave rise to jokes about how impossible it was to get tickets. Those jokes will have to be recycled for use in reference to the Lincoln Center Theater revival, which does great honor to this masterpiece and to the memory of its creators. |
