Scarlett Johansson Fuels South Pacific Revival Rumors

With a recent interview in the UK's Glamour, Scarlett Johansson continues to attach her name to the upcoming Lincoln Center revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic South Pacific, according to IMDB News.

It was previously reported in last month's New York Post that the film star was "in the running" to play cockeyed optimist Nellie Forbush in the revival.  Stating her admiration of South Pacific, the politically liberal Johansson said: "I've thought about it (playing Nellie). Wouldn't it be great? Though I'd have to be named 'For Bush', which I don't think I could stomach."

Scarlett Johansson has long expressed interest in starring in a Broadway show and is a big fan of musical theatre. Her name was last bandied about for the London revival of The Sound of Music, for which she met with producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, but a deal was never reached. Johansson has limited stage credits, but was enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Institute where she had the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience.

Scarlett Johansson first attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace Maclean, the teen traumatized in a riding accident, in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. More recently, her performance as Rebecca Doppelmeyer in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World (alongside Thora Birch) earned her the Toronto Film Critics Association award for Best Supporting Actress. A native New Yorker, Johansson made her professional acting debut at age eight in the off-Broadway production of Sophistry at New York's Playwrights Horizons. Her breakthrough film role, as Manny in Lisa Krueger's critically acclaimed Manny & Lo, earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. Since then, Johansson has starred in several other films, including The Prestige, Match Point, In Good Company, Lost in Transltion, Eight Legged Freaks and An American Rhapsody.

The New York Post previously reported that Kelli O'Hara and Reese Witherspoon were on the wish list as possible Nellie's. 

South Pacific - directed by Tony Award-nominee Bartlett Sher (The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing!) - will begin previews on or around February 28th of next year.

South Pacific concerns the love affairs of two couples who are living on a Polynesian island during World War II. Both romances - those of Nellie Forbush and older Frenchman Emile de Becque, and Lieutenant Joe Cable and Liat - are threatened by racism and misunderstanding.

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.

Casting for the South Pacific revival has not been announced.

Visit www.lincolncenter.org for more information.

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