Our final show on Broadway was by far the best production - inverse to our last visit when our last show was the worst... yes YOU "Cry-Baby", you big fat flop. But this time we peaked with Bartlett Sher's excellent revival of SOUTH PACIFIC at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center.

By careful planning it seems I have avoided seeing this Rodgers & Hammerstein musical at all. Nope never seen either of the two London revivals since the 80s and I have never seen the Josh Logan film.

I think this has come about by an acquired disinterest in the musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein. The only show of theirs I have seen on stage was the National Theatre's CAROUSEL which I found dreary as all get out and although I have had exposure to the films of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE KING AND I and OKLAHOMA!, still the team's work has never been something I have ever actively sought out.

I guess my baptism in stage musicals coincided with discovering Stephen Sondheim so I have kept their perceived excessive sentimentality at bay. Indeed any liking I have for them has been due to their songs recorded by Barbara Cook, Nancy LaMott or Bernadette Peters.

But the double-whammy of not that many shows on that I wanted to see and the idea of seeing this quintessential Broadway musical where it should ideally be seen finally made me book - and I'm glad I did.I vaguely knew the show's plot of nurse Nellie Forbush's love affair with plantation owner Emile de Becque in the South Pacific during WWII which is strained by her shock at his earlier marriage to a Polynesian woman and his taking on a dangerous mission for the US Navy with a young sailor who is himself wracked with indecision by his feelings for a young Tonkinese girl. I of course knew about three-quarters on the score - but the joy was finally seeing how they fitted into the show's plot! Like... who knew COCK-EYED OPTIMIST came so soon in the show?

I also knew of the odd conditions that the original star Mary Martin placed on Rodgers and Hammerstein. She was so scared of singing with Ezo Pinza, her co-star from the opera world, that she requested they have no duets together. However this oddity for a musical actually reaps rewards with Hammerstein and Joshua Logan's hard-nosed book, it gives a strange edgy quality to the show which reflects the character's wary approach to their feelings for each other. Bartlett Sher has approached his production with a care that acknowledges the show's classic status - amazingly this is it's first appearance on Broadway for 54 years - but also with a directness for the show's underlying themes of casual racism and the unsettling atmosphere of being in exotic surroundings while at war. Sher has recognized that the show is definitely one for our times and this unifying vision makes for one of the best musical revivals I have seen.

The delight starts even before the action get going with the overture being played by the 30+ orchestra under conductor Fred Lassen. Suzanne had made a point of how glorious the orchestra sounded and in the Olivier-like auditorium of the Vivian Beaumont they did indeed sound wondrous. The 8-man orchestra in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC from the night before immediately sounded retroactively puny! The orchestra was then cleverly disguised with a sliding stage!The performances were also uniformly excellent. The lead role of Nellie, the Arkansas nurse who is confronted by her own casual racism, was played by Laura Osnes who unbelievably came to prominence when voted the winner of the US television competition to find a 'Sandy' for the recent revival of GREASE! She gave a wonderfully nuanced performance with no attempt to gloss over the character's more questionable side - oh that any of our graduates from the tv talent school shows should make such an impact.

She was partnered by the opera world's David Pittsinger as Emile the French plantation owner trying to escape his past with a new life in the South Seas. He gave a nice performance but it was his rich baritone singing voice that had the audience in the palm of his hand and he quite stopped the show with a great rendition of THIS NEARLY WAS MINE.

Their are still two members of the original 2008 cast playing two important supporting roles for which they were both nominated for Tony awards. Danny Burstein played the comedic role of Luther Billis, always there if a scam or money-making opportunity is to be had, with a sly humour and he belted out a fine rendition of the crowd-pleasing THERE AIN'T NOTHING LIKE A DAME although even he couldn't quite convince us of the character's sudden conversion into being a man of action.Loretta Ables Sayre was a scene-stealing Bloody Mary, the Tonkinese counterpoint to Billis, always on hand to sell you a grass skirt or shrunken head. She created a memorable comic character but also knew exactly how to shift the emphasis for her two musical numbers - alluringly mysterious for BALI HA'I and more surprisingly injected a real threatening air to the otherwise perky HAPPY TALK. As she sang the latter, you never lost sight that the whole reason for her singing it was in trying to pair off her daughter Liat (Li Jun Li) on Lt. Joe Cable with increasing anxiety. She also played the small scene where she hears of cable's fate with just the right touch of haunted sorrow.
The role of Lt. Joe Cable, swayed from his secret mission against the Japanese by the alluring charms of both Bali Ha'i and Liat was played well by Andrew Samonsky. His two solos - the swooningly romantic YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME and the bitter and biting YOU'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT - were both sung with equal passion and conviction.The leading actors were ably supported by the whole company who all gave vivid and energetic performances - all deserving the ovations they received at their curtain calls.

Sher's vision for the show has been helped immeasurably by Michael Yeargan's expansive set design which smoothly changed from plantation to beach to Naval headquarters, by Catherine Zuber's vivid costume design and Donald Holder' subtle lighting - all of whom won deserved Tony Awards.
I heard this week that when the show finishes it's New York run in August (making it the longest running Broadway revival of a Rodgers and Hammerstein show) there is a chance it will transfer to London.

If it does I would whole-heartedly recommend it!