SOUTH PACIFIC
A Review of Rogers & Hammerstein's Evergreen

by James L. Seay

In a little over another month, it will be 61 years since Rogers and Hammerstein's fourth musical collaboration, South Pacific hit the Broadway stage at the Majestic Theatre. That would have been April 7, 1949. Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza played the leads. I was nineteen when I first saw South Pacific. It was at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago. It was the second professional musical play that I had ever seen. Janet Blair was playing Nelly Forbush. I don't remember who played Emile De Becque. But I do remember that I was captivated by the production. I spent many years after that seeking my own Bali Ha'i. I wandered from island to island - Saba in the Carribean to Wake in the North Pacific to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Finally, forty years after South Pacific opened, I sailed on the ketch, Denea III through the reef into the lagoon of Bora Bora in the South Pacific, the island upon which Bali Ha'i was based, the island that James Michener said was the most beautiful in the world. Michener was right in his assessment. But I never found Bali Ha'i. I did find Paul Gauguin. His posterized primitive paintings seemed to jump out from everywhere. But I never found Bali Ha'i. Maybe I was never supposed to.

Based on three different stories from Michener's 1946 book, Tales of the South Pacific ("Fo' Dolla'," "Our Heroine," and "A Boar's Tooth") South Pacific is a different sort of musical. I guess it still is, but it is so familiar after all these years that it seems more quaint than different. But here, over sixty years ago, was a popular entertainment that actually dealt with racial prejudices in America when racial prejudice in America was merely business as usual, and I am ashamed that the play now seems more "quaint" to me than brave. Admittedly, Jerome Kern touched on this theme 22 years earlier in Showboat, but that was a sub-plot. South Pacific deals with two major characters, the female lead and the male secondary lead, willing to abandon marriage and, the war permitting, future happiness to their revulsion at interracial marriage. It is toned down by having the "other" race being Polynesian, and Lt. Cable ends up being killed, perhaps as retribution for having seduced Bloody Mary's daughter, Liat (albeit with Blood Mary's best wishes), but I would hope not. Emile and Nelly get back together, but here we do not have a problem with "interracial" marriage - unless you consider the French to be another race. As pointed out by Eduardo Diazmuñoz, Director of the University of Illinois School of Music Opera Program, "If one young person has a prejudice, it might be a character flaw; but if two young people share that prejudice, it tells us something about the society in which they grew up."

Indeed, South Pacific did manage to flame tempers, particularly in the South. Just two years after I had seen the show in Chicago, it was playing to a sold-out house in Atlanta, when, on March 1, 1953, Georgia State Representative David C. Jones and State Senator John D. Shepard said, "Intermarriage produces half-breeds, and half-breeds are not conductive to the higher type of society. We in the South are a proud and progressive people. Half-breeds cannot be proud. In the South we have pure bloodlines and we intend to keep it that way." In this day and age, when the President of the United States, the greatest golfer the world has ever known, and the junior past World Champion Formula One racing driver are all "half-breeds," it is hard to believe that just fifty-seven years ago, the sovereign state of Georgia introduced legislation which would outlaw entertainment (a.k.a. South Pacific) that had, "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." Oscar Hammerstein openly wondered why "anything kind and humane must necessarily originate in Moscow." Believe it or not, gentle reader, that's the way things were in these United States when Lt. Joe Cable, U.S.M.C. first sang the heart-rending Act II, Scene 4 song, "You've Got to be Carefully Taught."

I have, in the 59 years since I saw Janet Blair sing Nelly, seen South Pacific twice more, once by a less-than-talented community theatre group, and once by an enthusiastic but young high school presentation. That is, until Thursday, February 25, when I saw the first really serious production of this evergreen since I was 19 years old. It was the University of Illinois School of Music's Opera Program production staged in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts' Festival Theatre on the University's Urbana campus, directed by Dawn Harris. With a few worrisome glitches, this production rivaled my memory of the one I saw so many years ago at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago.

Beautifully staged with a set designed by Stephanie Polhemus, lit by a design from Carson Gross and costumed by Rene Chadwick, the production attempted something which, in theory, was excellent, but in execution came up a bit short. During the Overture and the Entr' Acte, a slide show was projected, representing bits of World War II frozen in time, along with some quotations by Michener from his Tales of the South Pacific. Rather than being projected on the cyclorama, the slide show was projected on a scrim. As a result, the images were dim and the focus was soft, which is a euphemism for "out of focus." At first I thought it might be my eyes, as I am due for an exam and new glasses - but when I heard similar complaints from folks seated around me, I knew it was a problem. I liked the idea of the slide show, rather than just sitting in darkness listening to the pit orchestra (conducted by Eduardo Diazmuñoz). I particularly liked the idea of showing a younger audience actual images concerning what they were about to see - after all, World War II did end long before any of the cast or crew were born, and before most of the audience was born, either. But the dimness of the images and the weak focus seemed almost to defeat the purpose of the slide presentation.

The acting, directing and singing were, for the most part, certainly comparable to any equity production. One slight problem was that someone needed to teach the sailors and marines in the cast, as well as the nurses, how to render a proper military hand salute. But maybe this is nit picking from an old veteran. Still, the devil is in the details and things like this should not be overlooked. And I was really sorry that Nelly did not actually wash her hair("I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out-a My Hair"). As I recall, Janet Blair told The Chicago Tribune that she must have the cleanest hair in Chicago.

The principals are all double cast, and in the production I saw, Nelly was played by Ingrid Kammin, Emile by Ryan Milstead, Lt. Cable by Jeremy Ayres Fisher and Bloody Mary by Anna Rebecca Green. All but Kammin were vocally extremely strong. Miss Kammin, a soprano, and a BM candidate in vocal performance, has a voice more suited to the opera than to the Broadway musical. While beautiful, her voice seemed unsuited to the score. It needed to be able to belt out a song, a la Mary Martin, particularly on such numbers as "A Cockeyed Optimist," "A Wonderful Guy," and "Honey Bun." She also seemed a bit stiff in the part of Nelly and the chemistry between Nelly and Emile never seemed to really jell. Their final kiss seemed almost brother-and sisterly rather than greeting a lover assumed probably dead. I have the feeling Miss Kammin would have been much stronger as, let us say, Mimi in La Bohème than Nelly in South Pacific, as she never seemed really comfortable in the role.

The remaining principals were truly excellent, with the nod going to Milstead as Emile Le Becque. His bass voice boomed and was reminiscent of the late Ezio Pinza and was appropriate in every number.

The supporting characters were equally well-suited and I enjoyed them all. Obviously, I was not alone, as the cast was called back for five (count them!) five curtain calls. I just wish they'd learn how to salute.

Unfortunately, South Pacific has a very short run and deserves a longer one. Only four performances (it closes today with a 3:00 p.m. matinee) certainly leave little room for people to see such an excellent production.