South Pacific |
|
|
Opened on Broadway: April 7, 1949 Number of Performances: 1925 Opened at London’s West End: November 1, 1951 Number of Performances: 802 Movie Release: March 19, 1958 |
|
|
Charted: May 21, 1949 Peak: 169 US Sales (in millions): 3.0 US Genre: show tunes |
|
|
Released: May 19, 1958 Peak: 131 US, 1115 UK Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, 1.8 UK, 9.8 world (includes US and UK) Genre: show tunes |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Above track listing based on 2000 Decca reissue. Singles/Hit Songs: These were covers of songs from this musical which became hits:
|
Rating: 4.590 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings)
Awards for the Musical/Cast Album:
Awards for Soundtrack:
|
Rodgers and HammersteinRichard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are considered “the most successful partnership in the history of Broadway musicals,” TB having crafted such unforgettable works as Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and this one, South Pacific.One of Broadway’s Greatest MusicalsThe latter is considered “one of the greatest Broadway musicals” W-C and “one of the most beloved musicals ever to hit the stage.” AZ It had “the largest advance ticket sales ever registered” TB and was a massive hit, running 1,925 performances on Broadway AMG-C and another 802 in London. MK Its nearly five-year Broadway run was “longer than any musical before it except Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.” AMG-C “The appeal is simple: a collection of stunning compositions…and characters with a simple though cohesive through-line.” AZAt the time, a critic for the New York Daily Mirror wrote that it was “likely to establish a new trend in musicals” W-C and that “every number is so outstanding that it is difficult to decide which will be the most popular.” W-C The New York World-Telegram review said it was “the ultimate modern blending of music and popular theatre to date, with the finest kind of balance between story and song, and hilarity and heartbreak.” W-C The StoryJoshua Logan, a stage and film director and also a World War II veteran, read James Michener’s 1947 novel Tales of the South Pacific and decided to adapt it for the stage; he wound up as the musical’s director and producer. Rodgers & Hammerstein were tapped to write.” W-C Initially, “the musical was to center on the story ‘Fo’ Dolla’, about a love affair between a Polynesian girl and a stuffy American officer.” MK As Rogers recounted, however, he and Hammerstein decided that it “would look too much like a rehash of Madame Butterfly” MK and opted to make it secondary to “another story from the book, ‘Our Heroine,’ about a nurse from Arkansas who falls in love” MK with “an expatriate French plantation owner with a dark past.” W-C To add “comic leavening” MK alongside these “wartime romances complicated by racial issues,” AMG-C R&H added a third story, “A Boar’s Tooth,” MK about “Luther Billis, a womanizing sailor.” W-C
The Stars“The dashing former Metropolitan Opera bass Ezio Pinza” AZ was tapped to play the role of Emile deBecque, the French plantation owner.” W-C Of his eventual South Pacific performance, The New York Times’ Brooks Atkinson said, “Mr. Pinza’s bass voice is the most beautiful that has been heard on a Broadway stage for an eon or two.”Filling the role of “the heartily feminine American nurse” AZ is “the lovely, girlish Mary Martin” AZ who was “a musical comedy star…[and] a Broadway favorite” MK noted for performances in Peter Pan and Annie Get Your Gun. AZ The New York Post’s Richard Watts, Jr. said this of her performance in South Pacific: “Nothing I have ever seen her do prepared me for the loveliness, humor, gift for joyous characterization, and sheer lovableness of her portrayal of Nellie Forbush…Hers is a completely irresistible performance.” W-C
Themes“The issue of racial prejudice is sensitively and candidly explored in several plot threads.” W-C “Nellie struggles to accept Emile’s mixed-race children. Another American serviceman, Lieutenant Cable, struggles with the prejudice that he would face if he were to marry an Asian woman.” W-C The song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught “attacks the issue with a vehemence never before (and seldom since) seen on the stage.” MK It was initially “criticized as too controversial for the musical stage and called indecent and pro-communist.” W-CTonys and Other Awards“Critical response to the Broadway opening, April 7, 1949, at the Majestic Theater, was probably as uniformly ecstatic as for any show in history.” MK “Acclaim heaped up: nine Tony awards, including Musical, Book, Score, and Direction, along with acting kudos for Martin, Pinza, Myron McCormick (who played Billis) and Juanita Hall (Bloody Mary). Nine Donaldson awards. The New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Musical. And the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.” MKThe Cast AlbumThe accompanying cast album tapped Pinza and Martin and other cast members. It proved immensely successful, spending 69 weeks atop the Billboard charts – the most weeks spent at #1 in the chart’s history.The Movie and SoundtrackIn 1958, the musical was brought to the big screen with Joshua Logan directing and Rossano Brazzi (Emile de Becque), Mitzi Gaynor (Nellie Forbush), John Kerr (Lt. Cable), and Ray Walston (Luther Bills) starring. Giorgio Tozzi and Bill Lee provided the singing voices for Emile and Cable respectively. The original plan was to have Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin reprise the roles they made famous, but Pinza died in May 1957.The soundtrack became the most successful #1 album in the history of the U.K. charts – with 115 weeks on top. It also topped the Billboard album chart in the U.S. for 31 weeks. Collectively, the cast album and soundtrack have sold nearly 13 million worldwide. |
Resources and Related Links:
Other Related DMDB Pages:
First posted 4/7/2012; last updated 7/29/2024. |
No comments:
Post a Comment