Review: SOUTH PACIFIC at The Muny

The Muny!  It’s a legend!  It’s the Midwest’s generous source of great musical theater.  With 11,000 ticketed seats (and an additional 1,500 freebies way up at the top) it has been a beloved gem for generations of St. Louisans.  I’ve seen shows there that were better than anything I’ve seen on Broadway.  I especially appreciate the Muny’s habit of  blending seasons where newish shows are mixed with oldies from the golden age of American musicals.

South Pacific is one of those wonderful oldies.  With music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, South Pacific premiered in 1949.  I’d not seen the show in perhaps fifty years.  This Muny production made me appreciate its charms in ways my earlier eyes were too young to see.  This is a splendidly crafted show.  It mixes romance and comedy,  joy and sadness, patriotism, social commentary, danger, suspense.  There’s that mysterious forbidden island, Bali Ha’i.  And there’s a (mostly) happy ending.

The show is packed with unforgettable songs:  “Some Enchanted Evening”, “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”, “Bali Ha’i”, “Younger Than Springtime” …  You’ll leave the theater trying to whistle three or four songs at once. 

It was a beautiful evening!  The weather gods had whisked away the sizzling temperatures of last week, the sky offered pleasantly drifting clouds.  Forest Park was at its glorious greenest.  Thousands of happy summer people poured into the vast amphitheater.  

South Pacific is set on a tiny island during the Pacific campaign of World War II.  We’re in a base full of Seabees (i.e. the Construction Battalion of the U.S. Navy).  A number young Navy nurses share the camp.  The men are far from home, lonely, and hungry for women.  The nurses, however, are all officers by definition.  And officers must not “fraternize” with enlisted men.  Everyone is bored and anxious and eager to receive orders sending them into the real action of the war.

The central figure in the tale is Ensign Nellie Forbush.  Taylor Louderman was born to play this role!  She’s a native St. Louisan, she’s young and beautiful in a fresh mid-westerny way—and she’s utterly packed with talent—a fine singer, a lovely dancer.  With just a touch of Little Rock accent, and with an ever-present happy laughter just under the surface, she is a great delight.  I cannot imagine a better Nellie.

Paulo Szot sings Emile de Becque, the wealthy French planter whom Nellie meets on that “enchanted evening”.  They fall instantly in love.  Mr. Szot appeared (it seems only a moment ago) as the Italian father in Opera Theater’s Light in the Piazza.  The balmy south-seas air gives him a greater opportunity to flourish his outstanding baritone voice.  He is immensely effective in conveying M. de Becque’s charm, his powerful love for Nellie, and his ultimate heroism.  Well, he’s had practice:  for his previous performances in this role he has won both a Tony and an Olivier award.  I’ll bet he just gets better and better.

Shortly after Nellie and de Becque begin their rather hesitant wooing the weather gods have second thoughts.  The lightest little sprinkle of rain refreshes us all for a few moments.  The Voice of God calmly asks the actors to clear the stage, and a dozen black-clad stage hands arrive with squeegees and mops.  They swiftly and efficiently sweep the stage dry.  (Dancers need it dry, you know.)  The gods smile.  The show resumes.  Ah, live outdoor theater!  We all feel that we are secure in utterly competent hands.

A secondary romance springs up between Lt. Cable (here on an intelligence mission) and Liat (the beautiful daughter of Bloody Mary).  Michael Canu and Michaela Marfori make this a touching young love between people who have almost no shared language.

Bloody Mary is a gem of a character.  She’s bawdy and outspoken as she hawks her souvenirs to the Seabees—“Grass skirt for sexy girlfriend?  Shrunken head?”  She’s quickly learning all the cuss-words in English.  If you won’t plunk down “one dolla” that makes you a “Steengy bastahd!”  Joan Almedilla does a lovely, aggressive job with the role.  I join all those sailors, Seabees and marines in calling out  “Bloody Mary is the girl I love!”  (Well, after Nurse Forbush.)

Young Grace Moore and Josiah Paik are a delight as de Becque’s children.  Their “Dites- Moi [pour quoi la vie est belle]” captures us with charm.

Bobby Conte shows a kaleidoscope of comic gifts as Seabee Luther Billis, the camp’s arranger-of-things.  In the revue staged for a Thanksgiving entertainment Conte is a riot as “Honey Bun”, dressed in ludicrous sexy drag.  And the guy can sing!  And dance!

St. Louisan Michael James Reed (as Capt. Brackett) and Jeff Cummings (as Cdr. Harbison) give these officers both authority and humanity. 

There are really great ensemble numbers:  “Bloody Mary”, “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair”, “I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy”, “Honey Bun”.  And these numbers give us a lot of simple physical beauty to enjoy—the leggy girls in swimsuits or playsuits, the working Seabees stripped to the waist.  Fit, handsome, sexy folks indeed.  Choreographer Carla Puno Garcia fills the stage with athletic, graceful life.

The beautiful set, by Arnel Sancianco, is tropically lush.  Projected backgrounds, by Yee Eun Nam, blend seamlessly with the painted set.  Costumer Raquel Adorno dresses all the nurses, sailors, Seabees, marines, French and Tonkinese in careful authenticity.

Roberto Sinha directed the wonderful orchestra, and masterfully managed all the changing moods of the show. 

There’s one song in South Pacific that has always troubled me.  You’ve Got to Be Taught, that little primer on racism, is well intentioned but as it’s traditionally presented it is simply preachy.  Lt. Cable is in love with Liat but just cannot bring a bride of another race back to his ritzy Philadelphia family.  He’s overcome with shame.  Richard Rodgers gives him a jaunty little up-tempo waltz to explain prejudice.  But Cable is explaining to himself even more than to de Becque.  A more introspective, quieter tone would be much more effective.  (And I think prejudice is most often not “carefully taught” but “casually implied”.)

Be that as it may, Director William Carlos Angulo, the captain of this ship, has steered her right into the Realm of Ideal Forms.   (I did kinda miss the coconut-shell bra on Honey Bun.  But let’s say that that omission was like a beauty-spot on a gorgeous face:  it merely emphasizes the sheer perfection of all the rest.)   

The amplification system is, by the way, a miracle of perfection.  You’ll hear and understand every syllable.

Come!   See South Pacific at the Muny in Forest Park.  Come early, ‘cause there’s pre-show entertainment in a charming garden setting.  The night we came the lovely Sara Dao sang us a selection of great songs from great American musicals.  She was accompanied by pianist Carter Haney.  A beautiful job!

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