"South Pacific' revival in Wilmington

South Pacific is a big show from the golden age of Broadway musicals that also makes large demands. At least seven of its roles require individualized and fleshed-out characterizations; and large choruses of nurses and Seabees must be coordinated, not to mention 23 quickly changing scenes.

Not only does South Pacific boast an unusually large number of memorable tunes (I count more than a dozen). It also uses the technique of having varied cast members repeat songs like "Bali Ha'i" and "Some Enchanted Evening" That's how Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein drummed their ballads into audiences' ears and turned them into Hit Parade leaders. (In 1949, four of South Pacific's songs were among the top seven on the popularity charts.)

Potential producers astutely feared that South Pacific would lose its appeal after World War II veterans vanished from ticket lines: 59 years passed between its first production in 1949 and its first Broadway revival five years ago. But South Pacific's mix of wartime action, drama, comedy and song still works. The current Delaware production is quite moving.

Budget restraints

Director Bud Martin here effectively uses the movement of furniture and props to accomplish all those scene changes. A functioning jeep and part of a World War II-era airplane add color. But the orchestra, limited by budgetary restrictions to 14 pieces, requires some tolerance. (Thirty musicians were in the South Pacific pit five years ago in New York.)

Sarah Litzsinger was a fetchingly homespun Nellie Forbush, a provincial Navy nurse from Little Rock stationed on a lonely Pacific island during the war. Michael Sharon brought his robust baritone voice and strong presence to the part of the French planter De Becque. Since he's not a true basso like the role's originator, Ezio Pinza, Sharon seemed to me to have transposed "Some Enchanted Evening" up a step with no loss of impact.

This production's Bloody Mary, Amy Jo Phillips, was exceptionally vivid, and Stephanie Walters was beguiling as her young Tonkinese daughter who falls in love with the American lieutenant Joe Cable. Christopher deProphetis possesses everything one could wish for in the Cable part: good looks and an excellent tenor voice. His "Younger Than Springtime" and "Carefully Taught" were vocal highlights.

John Plumpis brought an unusually tender side to the wheeling-and-dealing Seabee, Luther Billis. Jerry Carrier and Will Dennis added to the drama with their effective portrayals of the island's military commanders.

Philadelphia connection

Some people in the Wilmington audience seemed surprised to hear references to Philadelphia and the Main Line, thinking that these place names may have been added for the show's run in the Delaware Valley. Not so: The author James Michener and librettist Oscar Hammerstein both lived in Bucks County, and those locales have been in the script from the beginning. That's where Cable came from.

What a shame, though, that Cable's song, "My Girl Back Home in Philadelphia PA" was cut from this version. (It was dropped in 1949 to shorten the play's length and restored in the 2008 revival.)

One unfortunate change made in 2008 is repeated here— the reference to de Becque as "age 44." A handsome and urbane man like de Becque, if he were only 44 years old, would not worry about competition from "younger men than I," as he sings in his Soliloquy.

Although Michener's novel, Tales of the South Pacific, mentions de Becque's age, Rodgers & Hammerstein eliminated it when they cast the handsome 56-year-old Ezio Pinza as de Becque. If anything, the age difference between Emile and the 20-something Nellie enhanced the original show's dramatic impact. Pinza became a greying sex symbol— a frisson that's missing from this production.