South Pacific at Sadler's Wells. Photo Johan Persson.The 1949 musical set on a South Pacific island during WWII, was groundbreaking for spotlighting racist issues and latent bigotry amongst the American occupying forces who search for distraction among the local population whilst awaiting their opportunity to get involved in the big battle against the Japanese fleet.
The score delivers one ravishingly orchestrated song after another with not one, but two romances integral to the storyline. The first involves a French plantation owner and father to two motherless mixed race children (Emile de Becque played by Julian Ovenden) who connects with a US military nurse from Arkansas (Ensign Nellie Forbush played by Gina Beck). The second involves Lt. Joseph Cable (Rob Houchen) who becomes infatuated with local girl Liat (Sera Maehara) the daughter of Bloody Mary (Joanna Ampil) the local purveyor of grass skirts, shrunken heads and various animal tooth amulets to the occupiers.
On Peter McKintosh’s busy but effective set, Daniel Evans has conjured a lively and breezy production where the more intimate dialogue scenes are given full opportunity to flourish emotionally. Slightly less successful are the larger choreographed company numbers where the dancers are under-utilised and given too few opportunities to shine.
Many of the songs will be known to audience members, especially Some Enchanted Evening, This Nearly Was Mine, Bali H’ai, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, Cockeyed Optimist, Younger Than Springtime and Happy Talk, but this is far from an exhaustive list and they literally keep coming.
Having recently revisited the 1958 movie version, this reviewer believes the current stage production holds-up very well and does justice to the original source material. If you love the old style romance-driven musicals, set in exotic locales and where characters undertake life journeys resulting in emotional development, then experiencing South Pacific for yourself will not simply be a matter of filling-in musical theatre gaps. It will genuinely entertain you in a charmingly old-fashioned and engaging way.
