Was ever a message musical wrapped in such a luxurious bounty of romance? Those love songs! Seventy years later, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific still floors us with its lyricism.
And William Michals, as the French plantation owner Emile de Becque, shines, with his committed, ardent performance and gorgeous baritone, in Olney Theatre’s first-ever production of this classic.
Olney’s Artistic Director Jason Loewith decided to produce the show after last year’s Charlottesville white-supremacist march. The iconic 1949 musical’s message of a dawning but fragile racial harmony remains all too timely in the era of torch-bearing bigots, caged immigrant children, and a president deriding “shithole” countries.
As Oscar Hammerstein wrote:
You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear
You’ve got to be taught from year to year
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade
You’ve got to be carefully taught
South Pacific asks, in its World War II context but in a more universal vein too, what good is fighting against fascism unless you know what you’re fighting for?
But its progressive instincts are wrapped in romance. On an island key to the allied campaign against Japan, Emile, a middle-aged French plantation owner, woos an American nurse, Nellie Forbush; and a young American lieutenant, Joseph Cable, falls in love at first sight with Liat, the Tonkinese daughter of Bloody Mary, a betelnut-chewing sassy vendor of grass skirts, shrunken heads, and other souvenirs for bored G.I.’s. Nellie can’t stomach Emile’s having sired two children with his now-deceased Polynesian wife, and Joseph is unable to imagine Liat in his Main Line Philadelphia life after the war.
The couples’ longing as they wrestle with these prejudices are the ingredients for unforgettable songs like “Some Enchanted Evening,” “A Wonderful Guy,” “Younger Than Springtime,” and “This Nearly Was Mine,” the last of which, in Michals’s hands, is the emotional apex of an altogether impressive night.
The very familiarity of these numbers—especially “Some Enchanted Evening”—gives them an added level of difficulty. But Michals, whose career bridges musicals and opera, makes them fresh, velvet-lining his powerful voice with thoughtful, self-assured phrasing. Jessica Lauren Ball, as Nellie, is a sunny presence with a clear, ringing delivery on “Evening” and “A Wonderful Guy,” and she makes a fun jazzy romp out of “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.” Alex Prakken, as Joe, conveys the youthful, head-over-heels intoxication of “Younger Than Springtime.” And Cheryl J. Campo, as Bloody Mary, paints an alluring musical vision of “Bali Ha’i” and leavens “Happy Talk” with a hint of unhappy fear.
As an astute and somewhat appalled college woman sitting next to me pointed out, for all its racial enlightenment, South Pacific is mired in the gender stereotypes of its era. No contest, your honor.
It’s a choice, really, whether you want to surrender, in the #MeToo years, to the grab-ass aesthetic of “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” led by David Schlumpf as the mischievous Luther Billis and his horndog companions. I chose to enjoy its pent-up delirium:
Nothin’ else was built the same
Nothin’ in the world
As the soft and wavy frame
Like the silhouette of a dame!
But for those who don’t, I understand. Those viewers won’t be reassured either by the later coconut-shell bra, gender-reversed old-school camp of “Honey Bun,” or by Bloody Mary’s pimping out her daughter. It is what it is. If un-PC is detrimental to your system, consider this a trigger warning.
The show is dated and stilted in other ways too. They sure did layer on the reprises back then, and it’s hard to sustain a moment of infatuation, as Emile and Nellie do, while holding glasses of brandy and staring into each other’s eyes during a musical interlude. The giggling antics of the “Wash That Man” scene feel forced. And the book’s humor is notably low-voltage—Nellie’s puzzling over the French pronunciation of “jeep” or Emile’s reference to Small Rock instead of Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Still, I like director Alan Muraoka’s curatorial reverence toward the script. Despite its warts, this period piece’s essential decency comes through and I’d forgive most anything for those gorgeous songs, supported lovingly by musical director Kristen Lee Rosenfeld and her orchestra.
But then devotion to a show is a bit like devotion to a lover.
Who can explain it? Who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
Olney Theatre Center presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Adapted from the Pulitzer-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific, by James Michener. Alan Muraoka, director. Kristen Lee Rosenfeld, music director. Darren Lee, choreographer.
Featuring Jessica Lauren Ball, Jessica Bennett, Kurt Boehm, Michael Bunce, Ryan Burke, Cherly J. Campo, Tiziano D’Affuso, Teresa Danskey, Jay Frisby, Amanda Kaplan, Christina Kidd, David Landstrom, Calvin Malone, Daniela L. Martinez, Calvin McCullough, William Michals, Alexandra Palting, Nathan Pham, Alex Prakken, Eliza Prymak, Hudson Prymak, Chris Rudy, David Schlumpf, Stephen F. Schmidt, Megan Tatum.
Paige Hathaway, scenic designer. Ivania Stack, costume designer. Max Doolittle, lighting designer. Ryan Hickey, sound designer. Alexandra Pohanka, wig designer. Pat McCorkle, CSA, and Katja Zarolinski, CSA, of McCorkle Casting Ltd., New York casting. Dennis A Blackledge, director of production. Trevor A. Riley, production stage manager. Rachel S. Hamilton, assistant stage manager. Christopher Youstra, associate artistic director-director of music theatre, reorchestrations, additional vocal arrangements.
Orchestra: Christopher Youstra, Frank Gorecki, Joe Jackson, Andy Axelrad, Rogelio Degarza, Amelia Giles, Cindy Rosenberg, Max Murray, Danny Villenueva.
Reviewed by Alexander C. Kafka.
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