Review: SOUTH PACIFIC at Totem Pole Playhouse

Most Rodgers and Hammerstein shows were popular out of the gate, and several have shown no sign of slowing down yet. While few people beg for revivals of STATE FAIR and the not so classic tune "Sweet Pig of Mine," some, like SOUTH PACIFIC, not only don't age, but become as relevant now as when they opened. War?  Relevant. Love?  Relevant?  Race and nationality discrimination?  Ouch. 

Totem Pole Playhouse artistic director Ryan B. Gibbs ably directs a new production of this old standby in a way that highlights some of the themes that haven't gone away along with the songs that everyone knows. 

The main topic most people find in the show, of course, is the off-and-on romance of nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile De Becque. That's not only because of their story but because of the outstanding songs that accompany it. Yes, Spencer Plachy of Broadway's ROMEO & JULIET delivers everything you want in his "Some Enchanted Evening," possibly the very best version I've heard recently.

Yes, nurse Nellie, played by Totem Pole favorite Amy Decker, can wash that man right out of her hair with the best of them. I have always secretly found the character of Nellie a bit annoying- kudos to Decker's performance and Gibbs' directing that here we have a Nellie this writer doesn't simply desire to shake into common sense. Her bite has actual teeth to it, and even when she's clearly just wrong you can follow her thinking. You might not agree with her but you see where her actions come from. (History later showed us that her being from Little Rock, Arkansas was not merely a cute choice.)

But there's much more to the story, and this production, than the A plot love story. The B plot is the story of Lieutenant Joe Cable, beautifully rendered by Sage Spiker, and his interactions with Bloody Mary, the local merchant, and her beautiful daughter Liat. Bloody Mary is portrayed by Caitlin Burke and is one of the best I've seen. Bloody Mary is the girl I love, and this show's staging of "Bali Ha'i" seems all but definitive, as Burke knocks the classic song out of the ballpark. 

At La Scala, the legendary opera house in Milan, the tradition is that if a soloist renders a truly spectacular performance, the audience may demand that the show stop for an immediate encore. Plachy and Burke provide those turns in this production. 

Spiker's Joe Cable delivers a beautiful "Younger Than Springtime" but more importantly a meat venomous "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," the song that several southern states originally demanded not be performed in productions of the show. In many ways, though other songs here are more lush or romantic, this song is what's really at the heart of the show - recognition that Americans are taught that everyone is not their friend or neighbor. 

The set design by Maggie Jackson is lovely, not cluttered but hardly minimalist, and surprisingly able to feel realistic. Jennifer Reed's choreography is first rate, and the male ensemble has dancers who do full justice to her work. With the possible exception, of course, of "Honeybun," which Dennis Setteducati performs cleverly and comically as Seabee Luther Billis, the corpsman Commander Harbison (Luke Reed) would most like to see in the brig one day. Darren Server, musical director, did a masterful job of making a tiny orchestra pit sound three times its size. 

Totem Pole Playhouse should be extremely proud of this production, which certainly rivals recent performances by larger regional theaters. This is what you want to see this summer, perhaps with a pina colada firmly in hand. This show is your tropical vacation in an evening. Catch it before it's gone. 


 

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