South Pacific: Background

Based on two stories from Tales of the South Pacific, the 1948 Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories by James Michener, Broadway’s South Pacific became one of the biggest hits in 1949. The musical won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score.

The story love and prejudice produced some of the most famous songs in the history of Broadway, including “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Bali Ha’I”, and “A Wonderful Guy”. South Pacific has been revived countless times in London’s Wets End, on Broadway, and on the movie screen.

In each, Ensign Nurse Nellie Forbush must challenge her Arkansas upbringing to accept that the French plantation owner, Emile de Becque, has had a prior marriage to a native islander on the island and has two Polynesian children.

Lt. Cable must make a choice between young love with the beautiful native girl, Liat, whose mother, Bloody Mary, is pushing for marriage and several external factors. He must weigh his own prejudices from back home and the risk he is taking by going behind Japanese lines in the South Pacific, and whether he would want to leave a girl so young widowed.

The latest South Pacific revival comes under the direction of Bartlett Sher, the famous stage director responsible for The Light in the Piazza and Mourning Becomes Electra. The cast also includes Kelli O’Hara as Nellie Forbush, Paul Szot as Emile de Becque, and Mathew Morrison as Lt. Cable.

Tickets to the show at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre will not last long and the show is scheduled to end its run in January 2009, so visit The Seats for your South Pacific tickets.