VIDEO: On This Day, April 3- SOUTH PACIFIC Starring Kelli O'Hara Opens On Broadway

On this day in 2008, Lincoln Center Theater's lavish new production of Richard Rodgers& Oscar Hammerstein's prize-winning musical SOUTH PACIFIC, directed by Bartlett Sher, opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

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."

Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC swept the 2008 Tony Awards®, winning seven honors including Best Musical Revival and Best Director for Bartlett Sher. The production featured musical staging by Christopher Gattelli, sets by Michael Yeargan(winner of the 2008 Tony Award), costumes by Catherine Zuber (winner of the 2008 Tony Award®), lighting by Donald Holder (winner of the 2008 Tony Award), sound by Scott Lehrer (winner of the 2008 Tony Award) and music direction by Ted Sperling. A full orchestra will perform the original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett (winner of a Special 2008 Tony Award) and dance and incidental music arranged by Trude Rittmann.