What is South Pacific?

 

Based on a book written by Joshua Logan, Oscar Hammerstein II
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II 

Directed by Jim Wadzinski

 

THE story for Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1949 musical, South Pacific, is drawn from the 1947 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel by James A. Michener, entitled Tales of the South Pacific, which dealt largely with the issue of racism. It is considered by most critics to be among the greatest musicals of the twentieth century. The original Broadway production won ten Tony Awards, including all four acting awards (Mary Martin, Ezio Pinza, Myron McCormick, and Juanita Hall), and won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in its own right. Despite the fact that the original Broadway cast album did not come out until mid-1949, 

South Pacific was the biggest selling album of the 1940's. Additionally, the 2008 Broadway revival of South Pacific was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning seven. The score is remarkable, with songs such as "A Cockeyed Optimist", "Some Enchanted Evening", "There is Nothing Like a Dame", "Bali Ha'i", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy", "Younger Than Springtime", "Honey Bun" and "This Nearly Was Mine", nearly every one a recognizable and beloved part of American music.

SYNOPSIS
The musical opens on a South Pacific island, during World War II, where a naive young Navy nurse from Arkansas, Nellie Forbush, becomes romantically involved with Emile de Becque, a French plantation owner. At the same time, the American sailors are growing restless and bored without work and combat to keep them active or women to entertain them in their downtime. One sailor, Luther Billis, hatches a plan to travel to Bali Ha'i, a nearby island where the French plantation owners are believed to have hidden their women. Meanwhile, a U.S. marine, Lieutenant Joe Cable, arrives on the island undercover on a dangerous spy mission crucial to the outcome of the war. A middle-aged grass skirt seller nicknamed "Bloody Mary," one of the few women on the island, takes an immediate interest in Cable. 

Nellie, on the other hand, has been reconsidering her relationship with Emile and decides to break up with him. However, when she bumps in to him unexpectedly, she realizes she can't dump him because she's in love with him and accepts an invitation to meet all of his friends and associates. 

About this time, Cable, who needs to run reconnaissance on a nearby Japanese-held island, approaches Emile for help, but the plantation owner refuses and Cable is told to go on leave until he is able to continue his mission. With nothing else to do, Cable allows Billis to convince him to travel to Bali Ha'i. On the island, Bloody Mary introduces Cable to a young Tonkinese girl, Liat, who turns out to be her daughter. She had been planning a love match, and it turns out to be a successful one as Cable and Liat quickly fall in love. Meanwhile, Emile and Nellie have become engaged, but when she learns that Emile has children with a dark-skinned Polynesian woman, Nellie's racial prejudice surfaces.

As Act II opens, the relationship between Liat and Cable is growing more serious, but like Nellie, Cable exhibits some signs of racism, fearing what his friends and family will think if he marries a dark-skinned woman. When he finally admits that he won't marry a Vietnamese girl, Bloody Mary is furious and drags her distraught daughter away, swearing that she will marry her off to some other man. Although somewhat aware and ashamed of their bigotry, both Cable and Nellie seem prisoners to their social conditioning and believe that they have no real choice in the matter.

Depressed over his rejected proposal, Emile offers to join Cable on his spy mission behind Japanese lines. The mission is successful, and the intelligence received results in an American victory and the destruction of Japanese convoys, but Cable is killed in the ensuing battle. Touched by Liat's grief when she learns of her lover's death, Nellie, who imagines that Emile has also died, decides to put aside her prejudice and at least learn to love Emile's children if she can't have their father. When Emile unexpectedly returns home, Nellie is overjoyed and agrees to marry.

 

 

 

PRODUCTION DATES
Lee College Performing Arts Center
July 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 2016
Friday & Saturday 8:00 pm
Sunday Matinee 2:30 pm

 

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CAST

Emile de Becque  -  Kent Reep*
Henry/Smith (CB)/Islander  -  Isaac Munoz*
Lt. Joseph Cable, U.S.M.C.  -  Hunter Hall
Captain George Brackett, U.S.N.  -  Chris Ladd*
Cmdr. William Harbison, U.S.N.  -  -Ryan Marshall
Lt. Buzz Adams  -  Ryan Ervin
Ensign Nellie Forbush  -  Hayley Holtje
Bloody Mary  -  Sylvia Wilson
Liat  -  Angelica Alcantar
Jerome  -  Alexis Grusecki*
Morton Wise (CB)  -  Roque Gonzales*
Luther Billis (CB)   -  Blaine Garcia*
Stewpot (CB)  -  Randy Powell*
Petty Officer Hamilton Steeves (UMC)  -  Mason Lauderdale
Kenneth Johnson (UMC)  -  Christian Montoya
Radio Operator Bob McCaffrey (USN)  -  Tristan Haq
Ensign Cora MacRae/French Girl  -  Brianna Butler
Ensign Bessie Noonan  -  Chloe Anderton~
Ensign Connie Walewska/Nun  -  Connie Musler*
Ensign Dinah Murphy  -  Katie Webb
Ensign Janet MacGregor  -  Samantha Smith*
Lt. Genevieve Marshall/Nun  -  Whitney Harvin
Ensign Pamela Whitmore/French Girl  -  Kaci Baker
Ensign Sue Yaeger/French Girl  -  Sadie Aiken
Ensign Rita Adams  -  Emily Ladd*
Ensign Lisa Minelli/French Girl  -  Paris Van Natta*
Ensign Quale (USN)  -  Dakota Barron
Tom O'Brien (USN)  -  Hunter Smith
James Hayes (USN)  -  Jacob Hillier
Professor (CB)  -  Kellen Solomon
Ngana  -  Laura Sorenson*
Bloody Mary's Assistant  -  Emily Thornton
Thomas Hassinger (UMC)  -  Tanner Files
Richard West (CB)  -  Joshua Figueroa*
Abner (CB)  -  Vincent Cooper
Abernathy (CB)  -  Joshua Jernigan
Nurse 1/Islander  -  Kat Stroud*
Nurse 2/Islander  -  Heather Romero
Nurse 3/Islander  -  Tori Weir
Nurse 4/Islander  -  Nohelia Cantu*
Nurse 5/Islander  -  Makayla Grothe
Nurse 6/Islander  -  Katrina Yordy*
Marcel  -  Gilbert Perez*
Henry's Assistant  -  Jodan Galia

 

*Denotes first time on BLT Stage    ~Understudy for Nellie Forbush
 

 

CREW

Director  -  Jim Wadzinski
Assistant Director  -  Chelsee Jernigan
Assistant Director  -  Elizabeth Darby
Assistant Director/Stage Manager  -  Kelli Van Natta
Production Manager  -  Janet Harrelson
Choreographer  -  Jenny Johnson
Vocal Music Director  -  Mike Tuneberg
Instrumental Music Director/Conductor  -  Dennis Eichler
Costumes  -  Sam Estrada
Hair/Makeup  -  Whitney Harvin
Properties Mistress  -  Rebecca Thornton
Properties Assistant  -  Joanna Gold-Baker
Set Construction  -  Bill Thornton
Lighting  -  Gary Smith
House Managers  -  Sheila McDonald/Jeanette West
Publicity  -  Michelle Cressy
Box Office  -  Dawn Daily
Graphic Design  -  Lloyd Lively

 

* Denotes first time on BLT Stage

 

BLT Top Billed Cast Members

Tony: Hunter Hall

Maria: Chelsea Jernigan

Anita: Edith Maldonado

Riff:  Joshua Hines

Bernardo:  Sam Estrada

 

For more information on this performance, visit http://baytownlittletheater.org/show/?show=380