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He also has the handsome looks and physique the role calls for. The song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," long noted as a strong statement against racism and hatred, is powerfully performed by CJ Eldred as Joe Cable with the cynicism and despair Cable is feeling fully evident.Įldred gives a persuasive performance as Cable, a Princeton graduate whose air of arrogance is undone by his tortured love for Liat. Yet, what could be viewed as outdated reactions by two central characters to the issue of race when seen through the lens of 2016, under Haj's insightful hand, seem like not-so-distant cousins to racist attitudes and gulfs in communication between people of different cultures that continue in our world today. The strong current of racial intolerance that runs through both storylines has made many observers call the book dated. Joseph Haj, directing his first brand new production at the Guthrie since taking the reins as its Artistic Director a year ago, in no way minimizes the importance of the music in telling the story, but he puts the story first, with strongly played book scenes, drawing on his actors to remain firmly in character while singing. The pairs of lovers are Navy nurse Ensign Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque, a French plantation owner much older than Nellie and Lieutenant Joe Cable, recently assigned to the base to conduct a dangerous reconnaissance mission, and Liat, a young Tonkinese island girl whose mother, called Bloody Mary, profits from the sale of all types of goods to the servicemen. Hammerstein and Logan effectively combined two stories from their source material, James Michener's bestselling short story collection "Tales of the South Pacific." Each is a love story between people from two different worlds.

South Pacific is set on a pair of small South Pacific islands in the maelstrom of World War II. The emotional richness of the songs in this show are part of the fabric of its narrative, and the book is all the stronger for that.

Their musical numbers are not pauses in the book but places where the book continues, told in song and dance. While musicals often feel like a string of plot devices that exist mainly to lead from one to the next musical number, South Pacific exemplifies perfectly the great thrust that occurred in musical theater with Rodgers and Hammerstein's work, starting with Oklahoma! and Carousel. Yet, what is most moving is Oscar Hammerstein and Joshua Logan's book. In the Guthrie's sumptuous production, now playing on the Wurtele Thrust Stage, the score is played and sung beautifully. Top it off with the epitome of places unknown, exotic and beseeching: "Bali Ha'i". The go-for-broke joy of "A Wonderful Guy" can lift one's feet right off the ground.

What songs convey the glory and promise of new romance better than "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger Than Springtime"? What melodies suggest innocent male lust better than "Bloody Mary" and "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame"? For women stepping in front of a man's ego with a dollop of sass, could you beat "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"? For the sharp pain of longing and regret, "This Nearly Was Mine" is unsurpassed.

The songs are not mere tunes, but emblematic of whole swaths of feelings. Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific opened on Broadway in spring 1949 and its music has always been on the soundtrack of my life. Review by Arthur Dorman | Season ScheduleĪlso see Arty's reviews of Calendar Girls and Tot: The Untold, Yet Spectacular Story of (A Filipino) Hulk Hogan