Lincoln Center to Present 'South Pacific' Revival in 2007-8 Season

By: Jan. 15, 2006
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Variety reports that Lincoln Center will present a revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein South Pacific in their 2007-2008 season. The show will be directed by The Light in the Piazza's Bartlett Sher, and is said that much of the Piazza team might be involved as well. The success of Piazza, featuring a score by Rodgers' grandson Adam Guettel is said to have been a factor in the decision. No casting, or other specifics on the show are said to have been discussed as of yet.

South Pacific, which is based on James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, starred Mary Martin as Nellie and Ezio Pinza as Emile when it opened at the Majestic Theatre on April 7th, 1949. Rodgers and Hammerstein's second-longest running show at 1,925 performances, it won all of its 9 Tony nominations in 1950, including Best Musical.

A number of its songs, such as This Nearly was Mine, Bali Ha'i, Younger than Springtime, and Some Enchanted Evening, have become worldwide standards thanks to the musical's success. Along with the many Tony Awards, Rodgers and Hammerstein, along with co-writer Joshua Logan, also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950.

Set in an island paradise during World War II, two parallel love stories are threatened by the dangers of prejudice and war. Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a mature French planter, Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his children was an island native and, unable to turn her back on the prejudices with which she was raised, refuses Emile's proposal of marriage. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl with whom he's fallen in love out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. When Emile is recruited to accompany Joe on a dangerous mission that claims Joe's life, Nellie realizes that life is too short not to seize her own chance for happiness, thus confronting and conquering her prejudices.
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