There's a reason and a segue in and out of every musical number in the show."įor choreographer Ray Limon, this production marks a return to "South Pacific." Early in his career, he choreographed an Orange County production starring Broadway veteran John Raitt. Noting that the production will feature a cast of 22 and a 10-piece orchestra, Carr added, "Rodgers and Hammerstein have given us that gift of true old-fashioned theater where it's not just a production number for the sake of a production number. "They wrote this in true musical theater fashion, where dialogue goes into song and the song becomes an extension of the dialogue," he said. The musical features classic Broadway songs including "Some Enchanted Evening, "A Wonderful Guy," "A Cockeyed Optimist," "Younger Than Springtime" and "This Nearly Was Mine." Joshua Carr, who is serving as director and musical director for the production, believes that the music of "South Pacific" is one of the best scores created by the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. "Finding happiness through these things, I think, is very powerful."Īn enchanted evening of 'true musical theater' "There's love and there's compassion and humanity," she said. ![]() We don't know what tomorrow is going to look like."īut, just as in "South Pacific," she believes there is hope. Thinking about the connections between the story of "South Pacific" and the world today, she observed, "We're faced with things that we didn't know we'd be faced with. She just wanted to provide a safe place for her daughter and the funds and the means necessary to make sure that her daughter survives and is taken care of."Ĭlark feels especially connected to what she called "the basic humanity behind each of these characters," people who didn't know what would happen but "wanted to deal with the cultural conflicts." And people being deployed who were being sent off and not coming back. She added: "They didn't know if there was going to be a tomorrow. She describes Bloody Mary as a survivor who is "selling grass skirts, she's selling bootleg liquor, she's selling anything she can to provide money to help her daughter." ![]() To hate all the people your relatives hate - you’ve got to be carefully taught!"Īctress Catrina Teruel Clark portrayed Liat's mother, Bloody Mary, in the 2022 national tour of "South Pacific." She is recreating the role in the Desert Theatricals production. In "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught," he sings: "You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late. Struggling with his love for Liat, the values of his life growing up outside of Philadelphia, and the world that awaits him after the war, Joe Cable angrily declares that prejudice is "not something you’re born with.” (Tonkin is now the northernmost region in Vietnam.) Joe Cable, an Ivy League-educated officer, played by Christian Fonte, and Liat, a Tonkinese native portrayed by Shelby Victoria. The other love story is the romance between Lt. She falls in love with widowed French plantation owner Emile de Becque, played by Broadway veteran Joe Savant, but struggles to accept his two children by his late Polynesian wife. Desert Theatre League award winner Lizzie Schmelling portrays Ensign Nellie Forbush, an Arkansas native serving as a U.S. ![]() "South Pacific" follows parallel love stories. Nearly 75 years later, the landmark musical is coming to life at Desert Theatricals with messages that resonate as deeply as when "South Pacific" premiered. It was also highly controversial, featuring two love stories set against the brutality of war and an environment of racial prejudice. ![]() It received critical acclaim, earning 10 Tony Awards - including Best Musical - and the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1949, with Americans optimistic about a new era of peace and prosperity in the aftermath of World War II, "South Pacific" premiered on Broadway.īased on short stories by James Michener published as "Tales of the South Pacific," the musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II was enormously popular, running for 1,925 performances.
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