SOUTH PACIFIC • The Fox

Well, now I can mark a classic off the list -- I've seen SOUTH PACIFIC in person.  I posted an entry about this show when the revival was aired on a PBS "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast here.  Since this will be a second viewing, I guess I'll just hit the highlights, shall I?

As the "About" section on this blog suggests, thanks to my wonderful parents, classical music is really my first love, so the fact that this show is traveling with a big-ass 26 piece orchestra -- yay!  There really is some absolutely beautiful music in this show, and a gorgeous overture.  I wet my pants a little.  Sadly, some seated around me still don't realize that the overture is part of the show, which annoys me.  I may have to post a whole separate entry about that soon…

From what I've read, this show (that debuted in 1949) did its part in addressing some major social issues for its time.  Set in the South Pacific during WWI, we have a Navy Nurse, Nellie Forbush, and an Officer, Lt. Cable, who find themselves falling for people of a different race.  I did notice this time around how all of the black "seabees" were always huddled together, away from the white officers.

Fox Preview: SOUTH PACIFIC

Last week PBS aired a "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast of SOUTH PACIFIC.  This show with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, debuted in 1949 and is considered by many to be one of the greatest musicals of all time.   

It was revived on Broadway in 2008 and was initially supposed to be a limited run, but ended up going for two years -- it closed a couple of days ago, on August 22.  The revival won seven Tony Awards when it opened and the original production won ten as well as the Pulitzer Prize.  I watched the broadcast to see what was up, honestly thinking I would be kinda bored, regardless of the number of songs from it that have become classics like "Bali Ha'i", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", "Some Enchanted Evening", "There is Nothing Like a Dame" and "Happy Talk".  Well, I was really charmed by it.  I was also unaware of the fact that this show dealt with racism as much as it did.  Pretty ballsy for a musical from the late 40's.

As you may have guessed, the setting is an island in the South Pacific during World War II.  A young Navy nurse, Nellie Forbush, falls for an older Frenchman named Emile de Becque.  I love how in musicals people can fall in love during the course of a two and a half minute song.  Then there's the handsome Lieutenant Cable who arrives on the island to head a mission to try to spy on the Japanese.  He's set up with Liat, the daughter of a Tonkinese "entrepreneur" called "Bloody Mary".  Things go sour though when Nellie finds out that Emile has two children by his Polynesian wife who has since passed.  Then those Little Rock roots come out and she starts to have second thoughts -- just as Lt. Cable has second thoughts about bringing a Tonkinese girl home.  There's a song called "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" where Cable explains to Emile that prejudice is not something you're born with -- it's something you have to learn.  That song may seem a bit ordinary nowadays, but again, ballsy for its time.