Casting has been announced for the all-new production of the Lincoln Center Theater prize-winning musical classic Rodgers and Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC premiering at the Golden Gate Theatre beginning Friday, September 18 through Sunday, October 25, 2009.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC swept the 2008 Tony Awards winning 7 awards including Best Musical Revival as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award for Best Musical Revival, and is directed by Bay Area native Bartlett Sher. Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC, which is produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Bob Boyett and NETWorks Productions, is presented as the final production of the 2008-2009 Citibank Best of Broadway series season under the direction of Carole Shorenstein Hays. This San Francisco engagement of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC will be the launch of the show's national tour. Tickets on sale now.
The National Touring Company of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC will be led by Rod Gilfry (Emile de Becque) and Carmen Cusack (Nellie Forbush), with Anderson Davis (Lt. Cable), Matthew Saldivar (Luther Billis), Keala Settle (Bloody Mary), Gerry Becker (Capt. Brackett), Peter Rini (Cmdr. Harbison), Sumie Maeda (Liat), Rusty Ross (Professor) and original 2008 Broadway cast member Genson Blimline (Stewpot).
The ensemble will include Christopher Carl, Eric L. Christian (from the Broadway production), Jacqueline Colmer, Mike Evairste (from the Broadway production), Kate Fahrner, Nicholas Galbraith, Chad Jennings, Christopher Johnstone, Kristie Kerwin, Jodi Kimura, Joe Langworth, Diane Phelan, John Pinto Jr, Travis Robertson, Josh Rouah, Kristen J. Smith, Matt Stokes, Gregory Williams and Victor Wisehart.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC swept the 2008 Tony Awards, winning seven honors including Best Musical Revival and Best Director for Bartlett Sher, a Bay Area native. This breathtaking new production is still selling-out at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in an open-ended run on Broadway, lauded by the critics as "Simply Wonderful! Beguiling Theatrical Magic!" (New York Post), "Ravishing and Overwhelming" (Variety) and "Rapturous and Revelatory!" (The New York Times).
Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize winning book Tales of the South Pacific, Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan.
Set on a tropical island during World War II, the musical tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples -- US Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque and Navy Airman Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat -- and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices. Considered by many the finest musical ever written, the score's songs include such classics as "Some Enchanted Evening," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair," "Younger Than Springtime," "Bali Ha'i," "There is Nothin' Like A Dame," "This Nearly Was Mine" and "A Wonderful Guy."
