Over at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, they have this revival of South Pacific that's been playing to sell-out crowds since it opened. There's a reason. It's really a stunning, emotional and memorable production. The thing runs a good three hours and all three hours are good.
South Pacific debuted on Broadway in 1949. Josh Logan directed, Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyrics, Richard Rodgers wrote the music and Logan and Hammerstein collaborated on the book. It was an enormous hit…one that changed the American musical theater, some said, with the way it crossed over from musical comedy to, at times, musical drama. Logan directed the movie version with the odd color scheme…and I must admit it had never meant much to me. I may need to see it again now.
The Lincoln Center version restores (they say) every word and note of what originally appeared on Broadway, including the orchestrations. Throughout the show's long life in regional and community theater, that has rarely been done and many companies temper the portions of the book that have to do with the mixing of races. In New York in '49, it must have been a pretty powerful condemnation of bigotry…and I'm even guessing it caught some theatergoers by surprise. A show called South Pacific somehow sounds a bit frothier than what you get. I say that because from some of the energy I felt in the theater at Lincoln Center, I gather a lot of attendees either didn't know it was coming or had forgotten. Many also seemed unprepared for some of the more wrenching emotional moments of the two love stories in the narrative.
Still, everyone loved it. Everyone. I may never go see this show again because I doubt I'm ever going to see it done this well.