Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific – Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Adapted from James A. Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific” Direction And Choreography by Rachel Bertone; Music Direction by David Coleman; Set Design by Janie Howland; Lighting Design by Franklin Meissner Jr.; Costume Design by Emerald City Theatrical; Sound Design by Sebastian Nixon. Presented by Reagle Music Theatre, 617 Lexington St. in Waltham, MA, through June 23, 2024.
By Mike Hoban
It’s almost summertime, and that means it’s time to roll out the classics at Waltham’s Reagle Music Theater. Artistic director Rachel Bertone has chosen two American musical theater standards, opening the season with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific and closing with Sondheim’s An American in Paris in August, with the Elvis-themed jukebox musical “All Shook Up” sandwiched in between. American musical theater standards are what Reagle does best, and it’s tough to go wrong with a show that offers a score like South Pacific’s, especially with a cast that features Boston musical stalwarts Jennifer Ellis, Christopher Chew, and Lisa Yuen.
Drawn from a Pulitzer-Prize-winning “Tales of the South Pacific,” a collection of short stories by James A. Michener, the story focuses on two improbable love stories set in the war-ravaged islands of the South Pacific during World War II. The first involves youthful Navy Ensign Nellie Forbush (a radiant Ellis) and her romance with Emile de Becque (Christopher Chew), a middle-aged French plantation owner. While we learn early on that he has two Polynesian children by his first (now deceased) wife, he keeps it hidden from Nellie. We also learn that Emile left France because he killed a man in his youth, but that doesn’t deter her from loving him. Instead, her doubts about whether she can stay in the relationship only surface when she learns that he was in a racially mixed marriage and the children are his.
The theme of racial prejudice also runs through the secondary love story between U.S. Marine Lieutenant Cable (Blake Du Bois) and a young Tonkinese woman, Liat, the daughter of island entrepreneur extraordinaire Bloody Mary (Lisa Yuen). Although he is engaged to a woman in Philadelphia that he’s not particularly excited about, he falls hard for Liat (Calico Velasco) but tells Bloody Mary he cannot marry her. It’s left unsaid, but it’s due to his and American society’s prejudice towards “race-mixing”. While the controversy associated with those relationships may sound absurd today, remember that it was 1967 before the Supreme Court struck down state laws banning marriage between individuals of different races. Cable realizes that his own prejudice is keeping him from the woman he loves, and when he launches the poignant “You’ve Got to Be Taught” with its lyrics, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear… To be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade,” it’s the most powerful moment in the show. Du Bois nails it and also does an excellent job with “Younger Than Springtime,” his love proclamation to Liat.
While South Pacific does not reach the lofty heights of last year’s stunning “Oklahoma!” – which garnered three well-deserved Eliot Norton Awards – the score is well-executed by the leads and makes up for most of the show’s shortcomings, which mainly involve some limp non-musical scenes involving the military officers that were little more than line readings. But it’s a musical; the terrific score is what we came for, and we weren’t disappointed, thanks in part to the skillful hand of music director David Coleman and conductor Jeffrey Leonard, who leads the 18-piece orchestra.
Chew’s renditions of “Some Enchanted Evening” (which charted at #7 on the Billboard 100 in 1949) and “This Nearly Was Mine” were heartfelt and compelling (although he had mic issues at the beginning of the show during “Some Enchanted Evening,” which he thankfully reprised later). Lisa Yuen, who showed a nice comic flair last year in Speakeasy Stage’s POTUS, convincingly demonstrates that side again in addition to her haunting version of “Bali Ha’i” and the upbeat “Happy Talk”.
But it’s ebullient Ellis who steals the show. The multiple Eliot Norton and IRNE Award-winning actress makes her post-COVID return to large-scale musicals in grand fashion, cartwheeling (literally) her way into our hearts as the impossibly sunny “hick” from Arkansas, Nellie. Her luminous smile even penetrates the heart of the conniving seaman Luther Billis (an effective Brendan McGrady, who leads the boys in a rousing “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”), who one suspects has a massive crush on Nellie. She leads the nurses in two of the evening’s show stoppers, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and brings down the house with an effusive “I’m in Love With A Wonderful Guy.” But she’s not just a late-night ad for Prozac, and projects real depth as she, like Lt. Cable, confronts her own prejudice. There are lots of reasons to see this production, but Ellis is the reason not to miss it. Unfortunately, the show concludes its two-week run on Sunday the 23rd, so get your tickets at https://www.reaglemusictheatre.org/shows/10/south-pacific
