“I know we’re not supposed to expect perfection in this imperfect world, but I’m darned if I can find one serious flaw in this production.”  
                                                         Ben Brantley, New York Times

Few would question the relevance of mounting a new opera production of Verdi’s La Traviata or the importance of presenting a Bach program at the symphony. Yet, there has been much discussion and nay saying amongst the theater crowd over the years about the relevance of staging a Broadway revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Why is it less relevant or important?

Many argued that the show was resonate for the post WWII audience but over time became dusty and dated. They said that war and racial and ethnic intolerance were old-fashioned issues that we’ve moved beyond just as we marched past the Second World War into a time of great advancement and prosperity. It’s now clear that those who believed South Pacific to be irrelevant most likely never saw the show. If they did, it was probably a cut-down, mediocre production or they saw the glossy over-colorized 1958 movie fraught with questionable creative choices including the over-dubbing of singing for all the lead actors (except Mitzi Gaynor as Nellie and Ray Walston as Billis).

Rodgers & Hammerstein Were Risk Takers

Despite popular cultural perception, Rodgers and Hammerstein were edgy for their time—creating stories that exposed our unflattering traits but in an entertaining context and enthusiastically embraced by audiences. Their songs became part of the American fabric, their shows eventually sentimentalized and, ultimately, taken for granted.

“R & H were risk takers,” insists Ted Chapin, President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. “They never took the safe road. One of the extraordinary parts of South Pacific is the examination of what prejudices we, each of us, has within us, that we may or may not be aware of. The racial part of the story was probably quite stunning to the 1949 audience because they probably hadn’t realized that was going to be the problem of the 50s. So in some ways it was the show that took from the past, stared at an audience today and said, that’s the future. It think that’s one of the reasons audiences at Lincoln Center were so moved by a show that some thought would be dated. Turns out it wasn’t dated at all.”

There has not been a Broadway revival of South Pacific since the original production opened at the Majestic Theatre in 1949. All productions since, some 25,000 worldwide, have been cut-down star vehicles or non-professional productions, attractive to produce because of the enormous recognition of the lush, beloved score. South Pacific has never been staged the way it was originally written and orchestrated, ever, including the original production — until now.

Directed the Musical as a Play

“I read the script as if it were a play,” admits Director Bartlett Sher,  “and I found the script extremely moving and clear, and wonderful, and very interesting in a way I was surprised by. Particularly as a way of looking at America from 1942 to now, all that we were going through, who we were as a country. So it felt like a great American play and it had won the Pulitzer Prize and I wasn’t surprised by that.”  

Text and dialogue was cut during the original show’s pre-Broadway tryout because actress Mary Martin was uncomfortable speaking certain lines for Nellie that had racist overtones. That dialogue was precisely the point Rodgers and Hammerstein were bravely making with the interracial love storylines. In scouring the R & H archives, Chapin uncovered the jettisoned dialogue and made it available to Sher.

“There was all this information about race and scenes between Nellie and Emile and between Nellie and Lt. Cable that was very complex and interesting,” Sher explains. “I was shocked that they had cut it because it was such great material. They told me it was all available to me. That made it even more interesting to begin a process that was going to include looking at the show for the first time. Was there a way we could see it differently than we’d seen it before, and could we build a context around it which would really honor and make sense of the musical in a different way?”

Why Revive the Show Now?

Sher believes that most people don’t know Rodgers & Hammerstein as well as they think they do. “One of the things that has probably helped our revival a lot is 40 years of very strange productions of South Pacific that heightened and elevated the music and these songs but didn’t take into consideration the seriousness of the situation they were writing about. It became a much lighter musical than it was originally intended to be and that became its history.”

Why revive South Pacific now? Because it matters as a powerful dramatic story, a brilliant musical tableau, and a historically honest and emotional musical theater piece. The stunning revival produced by Lincoln Theater Center has knocked theatergoers off kilter. They have been moved deeply by the story, the staging and the music.

“What is really amazing about Rodgers and Hammerstein, particularly with Josh Logan’s help, is the songs are always extensions of the scenes,” explains Sher. “They are never stopped to have a song, you never feel that distance. Josh Logan who was the original director and writer, had done a lot of work with Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theater. He was one of those really deep, 'method' kind of guys and he wanted it to be very real. We investigated our entire process for doing this musical based on that kind of reality. So whenever they came to singing it was only an extension of what they were feeling. It was never a separate thing. That is what makes it really beautiful, and makes it such a special musical.”

One that is much more than an enchanted evening.

For More:
To hear about recovering the original orchestrations for South Pacific, click here. To read the Q & A with Musical Conductor Lawrence Goldberg, click here.

Much has been written about the new production of South Pacific and its relevance today. To read Frank Rich’s evocative essay in the New York Times, click here. For the Vanity Fair perspective, click here. For detailed information on South Pacific and Rodgers & Hammerstein, click here.

Photos: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Mary Martin,
Ted Chapin and Bartlett Sher courtesy of the R & H Organization.

South Pacific production photo: Joan Marcus

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