'South Pacific' Number One on Billboard's Cast Album Chart

The 2008 Broadway Cast Recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC (Sony BMG Masterworks Broadway) currently leads the Billboard Cast Album Chart.  The recording of this treasured American classic has captured the #1 slot for cast recordings and charted at #59 on the Top 200 in Billboard magazine and came in #2 in overall internet sales. 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 the war and by their own prejudices. This cast recording was released on May 27, 2008 from Masterworks Broadway and is produced by David Caddick and David Lai.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC premiered at Broadway's Majestic Theatre on April 7, 1949 and enjoyed a five-year run winning countless awards including nine Tony® Awards (among them, Best Musical) and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  Considered by many to be the finest musical ever written, the score includes such classics as Some Enchanted Evening, Younger Than Springtime, Bali Ha'i, There is Nothin' Like A Dame and A Wonderful Guy.
 
Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC features a cast of 40 headed by Kelli O'Hara as Nellie Forbush and Paulo Szot as Emile de Becque, with Matthew Morrison (Lt. Joe Cable), Danny Burstein (Luther Billis), Loretta Ables Sayre (Bloody Mary), Sean Cullen, Victor Hawks, Luka Kain, Lu Jun Li (Liat), Laurissa Romain, Skipp Sudduth, Noah Weisberg,Becca Ayers, Wendi Bergamini, Genson Blimline, Grady McLeod Bowman, Charlie Brady,Matt Caplan, Christian Carter, Helmar Augustus Cooper, Jeremy Davis, Margot De La Barre, Christian Delacroix, Laura Marie Duncan, Mike Evariste, Laura Griffith,Lisa Howard, MaryAnn Hu, Zachary James, Robert Lenzi, Garrett Long, Nick Mayo,George Merrick,William Michals, Kimber Monroe, Emily Morales, Darius Nichols, George Psomas, Andrew Samonsky and Jerold E. Solomon.  Mr. Szot appears in Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific with the permission of Actors Equity Association.    The production includes musical staging by Christopher Gattelli, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Scott Lehrer and a 30 piece orchestra conducted by musical director Ted Sperling performing the original 1949 orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and dance and incidental music arranged by Trude Rittmann. Tickets to Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC are available now at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street), at telecharge.com, or by visiting www.lct.org. Lincoln Center Theater's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC earned 11 Tony® Award nominations including: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Paulo Szot), Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Kelli O'Hara), Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Danny Burstein), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Loretta Ables Sayre), Best Direction of a Musical (Bartlett Sher), Best Choreography (Christopher Gattelli), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Michael Yeargan), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Catherine Zuber), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Donald Holder), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Scott Lehrer).  The production also won 5 Drama Desk Awards.
 

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