BWW Reviews: Love Triumphs in Bayou City Theatrics' SOUTH PACIFIC

SOUTH PACIFIC, composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, premiered in 1949 on Broadway and ran for close to two-thousand performances. This Tony-award winning musical, based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, merges progressive messages on racism, sexism, and gender equality, each theme intertwining with the love stories.

This weekend I attended Bayou City Theatrics' production of SOUTH PACIFIC. It was "Some Enchanted Evening." The set design, props and staging was nicely orchestrated to engage the audience in each scene set before us and moved fluidly scene by scene from the first act to the second.

Erica Bundy is endearing as naive Nellie Forbish during "Cock-Eyed Optimist." Tyler Galindo is charming as Emile de Becque each time he's present on stage. And Erin Doyle and Gia Ochsenbein as Ngana and Jerome are adorable. However, hesitation and slight awkwardness play out noticeably twice during the performance. Once during an important revelation and again during the fan-favorite "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out-a My Hair." There was a slow start to the revelation scene and a lack of involvement to jump start the action on the beach number.

The colorful and fun group of Seabees led by Jayson Kolbicz, who played Luther Billis, liven up the dramatics with both "Bloody Mary" and "There is Nothin' Like a Dame," utilizing the stage nicely as each Seabee was characterized by their one-liners. We must not forget the ever sassy Bloody Mary (Agnes Balka), whose added comedic dialogue inserts were coupled with a wildly vivid caricature of a Tonkinese middle-aged woman imploring her entrepreneurial skills to anyone that would listen...or the "stingy bastards!"

Rarely was the show's musical score performed as a loud-cheering, non-stop clapping showstopper. However, the musical direction seemed to take on the concept of the organic musical, in which songs feel to the the audience as natural as breathing.

Even crowd-pleasers like "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy" and "Honey Bun" felt as if part of a daily routine, while "Bali Ha'i" and "Happy Talk" were delivered as acts of seduction, incorporating lighting effects for one and routine dance for the other with Michelle Mayo playing Liat, the daughter of Bloody Mary. Mayo is the love interest of Lt. Joe Cable (Colton Berry) and the dynamic to his lament, "Younger Than Springtime."

The second act seemed to be the epitome of comfort level for all the actors, as everyone, including Captain Brackett (Will Ledesma) and Commander Harbison (Dustin A. Salinas), take total and full ownership of their roles and go the distance, engaging the audience with their overt feelings and emotions through facial expressions, dialogue and musical transitions. We feel the themes surrounding the South Pacific in "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." The dejected feelings of love lost in "This Nearly Was Mine," until we're overcome with "Dites Moi" and love prevails.

Overall the show was a pleasant time-travel and an endearing, light-hearted laugh that suggests love can still, no matter what, triumph over all.

SOUTH PACIFIC opened at Bayou City Theatrics on March 13, 2015 and will run until March 29, 2015 at The Kaleidoscope.

Photo Credit: Bayou City Theatrics Staff

To post a comment, you must register and login.