You may be surprised to learn that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s famous musical has had more revivals in London than in New York. The last one was at the National Theatre in 2001 and directed by Trevor Nunn. Bartlett Sher’s production, which opened at the Lincoln Center Theatre in New York in 2008, was highly praised and won 7 awards. Possibly one of the reasons for its critical success in America is that this was the first time Broadway audiences had seen the musical since its premiere in 1949 when it was directed by Joshua Logan, starred Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, won the Pulitzer Prize, and ran for 1,925 performances.
The two romances, which take place on the islands of Samoa during World War 2, are based on James A Michener’s novel, Tales of the South Pacific. A young US Navy nurse, who describes herself as a “knuckle-headed, cockeyed optimistic hick,” falls in love with a middle-aged French plantation owner whose favourite reading is Marcel Proust and Andre Gide. She, amazingly, has no difficulty whatsoever in accepting he had once killed a man; but she does balk, initially, at the idea of marrying him when she learns he had been married a Polynesian woman and had had two children by her. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, which would, in 1957 become notorious for race riots. The cultural differences between them are characterized by two different theatrical genres. Her songs belong to the world of the musical comedy stage; whilst his are much nearer to the world of opera. Musically, it works; but the relationship is never believable.
A young lieutenant falls in love with a 17-year-old native girl (pimped by her mother) but knows that the folks back home would never accept a native bride. He has the show’s key indictment of racism when he sings “You gotta be carefully taught to be afraid of people with different skins.” The plea for racial tolerance and the very idea of mixed marriages caused problems for the show when it toured the Southern states in the early 1950’s.
Sher’s production is disappointing; but that is not to say that it isn’t enjoyable. How could it not be? South Pacific is up there with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s masterpieces: Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music. It’s the sort of show you go into the theatre already humming the tunes. It has a wonderful score: Some Enchanted Evening, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair, Younger Than Springtime and There’s Nothing Like a Dame. The high spot is Paul Szot, the Brazilian baritone, singing This Nearly Was Mine with such operatic grandeur, such intensity, such warmth, that he stops the show. Samantha Womack had injured her foot on the press night, which may explain why she didn’t have more fun washing the man right out of her hair. A lot more shampoo would have helped. South Pacific runs at the Barbican through September and then goes on a long tour of Britain which will last until May 2012.
You may be surprised to learn that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s famous musical has had more revivals in London than in New York. The last one was at the National Theatre in 2001 and directed by Trevor Nunn. Bartlett Sher’s production, which opened at the Lincoln Center Theatre in New York in 2008, was highly praised and won 7 awards. Possibly one of the reasons for its critical success in America is that this was the first time Broadway audiences had seen the musical since its premiere in 1949 when it was directed by Joshua Logan, starred Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, won the Pulitzer Prize, and ran for 1,925 performances.
The two romances, which take place on the islands of Samoa during World War 2, are based on James A Michener’s novel, Tales of the South Pacific. A young US Navy nurse, who describes herself as a “knuckle-headed, cockeyed optimistic hick,” falls in love with a middle-aged French plantation owner whose favourite reading is Marcel Proust and Andre Gide. She, amazingly, has no difficulty whatsoever in accepting he had once killed a man; but she does balk, initially, at the idea of marrying him when she learns he had been married a Polynesian woman and had had two children by her. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, which would, in 1957 become notorious for race riots. The cultural differences between them are characterized by two different theatrical genres. Her songs belong to the world of the musical comedy stage; whilst his are much nearer to the world of opera. Musically, it works; but the relationship is never believable.
A young lieutenant falls in love with a 17-year-old native girl (pimped by her mother) but knows that the folks back home would never accept a native bride. He has the show’s key indictment of racism when he sings “You gotta be carefully taught to be afraid of people with different skins.” The plea for racial tolerance and the very idea of mixed marriages caused problems for the show when it toured the Southern states in the early 1950’s.
Sher’s production is disappointing; but that is not to say that it isn’t enjoyable. How could it not be? South Pacific is up there with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s masterpieces: Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music. It’s the sort of show you go into the theatre already humming the tunes. It has a wonderful score: Some Enchanted Evening, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair, Younger Than Springtime and There’s Nothing Like a Dame. The high spot is Paul Szot, the Brazilian baritone, singing This Nearly Was Mine with such operatic grandeur, such intensity, such warmth, that he stops the show. Samantha Womack had injured her foot on the press night, which may explain why she didn’t have more fun washing the man right out of her hair. A lot more shampoo would have helped. South Pacific runs at the Barbican through September and then goes on a long tour of Britain which will last until May 2012.