Theatre Review - South Pacific

South Pacific

Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan

Music by Richard Rodgers // Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

directed by Bartlett Sher

When: Saturday, December 26, 2009

Where: Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont

What: Musical, Professional Theatre, Broadway

There were so many things right with this production of the "classic" musical South Pacific that it's easy to overlook it's major flaw -- the lack of any story that matters. Similar to the recent film release of Avatar, South Pacific at the Vivian Beaumont in NYC is a beautifully crafted piece...but it has no strong story and it manages to drag that nothingness out for three hours.

The general gist of the story is this -- stationed on an island in the South Pacific in WWII, young nurse Nellie Forbush has fallen in love with an older Frenchman, Emile de Becque, who has moved to the island after he ran away from France because he killed a man. Now, killing a man wasn't enough to push Nellie away from him, but once she finds out he has two interracial children from an affair with a Polynesian woman, she's through with him. That's pretty much it. It's obvious that the two of them will get back together, so why stretch this thing out to three hours?

Fortunately, despite the lack of any important story (although, to be fair, I guess it had some impact when it was first presented in 1949), everything else shines, particularly the two leads. Paulo Szot (who plays Emile) is apparently best known for singing opera and his voice was just amazing. The winner of the 2008 Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, Szot brings an astounding amount of emotion to his deep baritone (I had to look that up...I couldn't tell you a tenor from a soprano) and his acting skills were top notch, too.

The cute Kelli O'Hara, while perhaps a little too old to be playing a naïve twentysomething, steals the show in my opinion. Also nominated for a Tony for this role (she didn't win), O'Hara runs the gamut of emotions from perky to dejected to uptight to lovelorn. She's a fine dancer, a funny comedienne, and a beautiful singer. I was just drawn to her every second she was onstage. Whereas Szot is given some of the musical's most emotional ballads, O'Hara is privileged to sing some truly fun songs with clever lyrics and director Bartlett Sher really sets up the whole production around her Nellie, giving her some of the best set pieces to work with (literally taking a shower onstage while she sings "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" was just one of his clever stagings).

Szot and O'Hara are surrounded by a great cast of singers and dancers who all get a chance to shine. I'm not a huge fan of big dance numbers and, fortunately, this musical didn't really have any. What it does have, however, is a thirty piece orchestra...and that won me over in a big way. The music was simply, for lack of a better word, gorgeous (I think that "gorgeous" should probably only be used to discuss something visually, but who cares). The orchestrations just sounded amazing. From the 5-minute-plus Overture to the final notes of the curtain call, everything sounded sumptuous and full. Most musicals these days get by with a much smaller orchestra than this and having a group thirty people big adds that intangible something that makes South Pacific rise above the rest.

Now, did this thing move me emotionally as much as The Lion King? Nope. Were the songs as good as those in Mary Poppins? Nah. And while this may not be the best musical I've ever seen thanks to its lackluster story, South Pacific was absolutely a very enjoyable experience and well worth its ticket price.