BWW Reviews: Enduring SOUTH PACIFIC Offers Enchanted Evening at Moonlight Amphitheatre
By: Don Grigware Jun. 28, 2013
South Pacific/book by Oscar Hammerstein II & Joshua Logan/music by Richard Rodgers; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II/directed by Steven Glaudini/Moonlight Theatre, Vista/through July 13
Like The King and I, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific is a heartbreaking story told across racial borders and has an elegant score. The look in its rich set design - from the original 2008 Broadway/Lincoln Center revival with an incredible, dreamlike Bali Ha'i in the background, setting the romantic tone for the entire show, adds so much to the current production at Moonlight Amphitheatre.
Steven Glaudini is an impeccable director and he has remained faithful to the 2008 Tony winning Broadway revival. Seeing the show in the open air under the stars adds a great touch of realism as many of South Pacific's scenes are played out on beaches with an overwhelming view of Bali Ha'i...and it pure and simple adds to the romantic mood of the piece. I felt only a slight disappointment in this production with a lack of excitement among the overall cast/chorus in Act I. Carlos A. Mendoza provides fine traditional choreography for the sailors in "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" and for Nellie and her gal navy corps in "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair". Technically, this scene would work better - there's a weak flow, a mere trickle, of water here - if Nellie were not wearing a wig, but had cut her hair short, so that she could wet and lather it more believably. When fully executed, the scene is a delight!
This cast is headed by Hilary Maiberger as Ensign Nellie Forbush and Randall Dodge as cultured Frenchman Emile de Becque. Maiberger is adorable and appropriately perky and convincing in making Nellie's conflicting emotions transparent at every moment. Dodge, despite his powerful voice, is rather wooden, but redeems himself with the sacrifice in Act II. Danny Gurwin gives Lt. Joseph Cable an edge of dissatisfaction/despair that is palpable. One can sense his love for Liat and feel his desire for change. His is one of the best performances of the evening! Jason W. Webb as Luther Billis is less raw and aggressively overbearing, as I've seen it played before, but he brings an ordinary, down.to.earth funny 'guy next door' quality to it, kind of like the Fonz in Happy Days, making Billis ultimately likeable. Brenda Oen is not as powerful a Bloody Mary as I would like to have seen, but with a lovely voice. Hats in the air to April Abrazado, in her first stage performance as the gorgeous Liat, Taylor Bassett as Captain George Brackett and to the entire ensemble for keeping the show flowing along on a steady course.
As with every R & H musical, the music contains some of the most beautiful songs eve written, such as "Some Enchanted Evening", "Younger Than Springtime", "Cockeyed Optimist", "This Nearly Was Mine", "Carefully Taught" and "I'm In Love with a Wonderful Guy". Elan McMahan's musical staging of them all is stellar and Glaudini's magic, although not as vibrant as with his Sweeney Todd, still glimmers here and there. The next to last scene on the beach with the soldiers leaving the island, marching to the tune of "Honey Bun" followed by the quiet and heartfelt return of de Becque to his family are brilliant images that stay in the mind long after leaving the theatre.
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