STAGE TUBE: Behind the Scenes - SOUTH PACIFIC at Delaware Theatre Company

Directed by Executive Director Bud Martin, SOUTH PACIFIC marks DTC's first production of a large-scale classic musical, with a cast of 26, including 5 local children, and a full 14-piece orchestra. Not only is this the first cast of this size in recent DTC history, but the show also promises one of the most stunning and clever set designs by Scenic Designer Dirk Durosette, incorporating both a functional jeep and the recreation of a World War II plane.

Creative Team includes Choreographer and Vocal Director Sonny Leo, Music Director/Conductor Johanna Schloss, Costume Designer Millie Hiibel, Sound Designer Carl Casella, and Lighting Designer David Todaro. The cast boasts a large number of Philadelphia-based actors, with regional talent performing alongside Broadway veterans.

SOUTH PACIFIC includes music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, the musical draws from multiple story elements in the text. The original Broadway production opened in April of 1947, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950 and gathering ten Tony Awards. The 2008 Broadway revival at Lincoln Center followed in these footsteps, winning seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival.

About the Show: Set in an island paradise during World War II, two parallel love stories are threatened by the dangers of prejudice and war. Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a mature French planter, Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his children was an island native and, unable to turn her back on the prejudices with which she was raised, refuses Emile's proposal of marriage. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl with whom he's fallen in love out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. When Emile is recruited to accompany Joe on a dangerous mission that claims Joe's life, Nellie realizes that life is too short not to seize her own chance for happiness, thus confronting and conquering her prejudices. This deeply-felt drama remains as relevant today as it was in 1949, featuring such timeless favorites as "Some Enchanted Evening," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," "This Nearly Was Mine," and "There is Nothin' Like a Dame."