Photo Flash: First Look at Rubicon Theater Company's SOUTH PACIFIC

This Thursday, December 7 marks the anniversary of the air raid on Pearl Harbor in which Japanese planes attacked a United States Naval Air Base in the Territory of Hawaii in the Pacific. Thousands of Americans lost their lives or were injured, and more than 300 ships were destroyed. The event brought citizens together in support of U.S. participation in the war. President Roosevelt addressed the nation, calling the event, "a day that will live in infamy."

Rubicon Theatre of Ventura commemorates the day with a preview of the company's intimate two-piano version of the World War II epic SOUTH PACIFIC, with music by Richard Rodgers and Hammerstein II, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener. The production features a cast of 28 under the direction of KATHARINE FARMER. Tony honoree Ben Davis (Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème) plays French plantation owner Emile de Becque, and and Madison Claire Parks (Luisa in The Fantasticks Off-Broadway), plays Ensign Nellie Forbush.

Any World War II veteran purchasing tickets on December 7 for any performance during the run (which continues through December 23), will receive a $10 discount. For more information, call (805) 667-2900.

The plot of SOUTH PACIFIC follows two love stories about seeming-opposites brought together by the circumstances of war and torn apart by prejudice and fear. In the core story, Nellie Forbush (Parks), a naïve American nurse from a small town, falls in love with Emile de Becque (Davis), a sophisticated man with a mysterious past. In the second, Joe Cable, a Marine Lieutenant from Philadelphia finds himself drawn to Liat, a young native girl.

The timeless score includes beautiful ballads such as "Younger the Springtime" and "Some Enchanted Evening," exuberant up-tempo songs like "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy," comic character numbers like "There Is Nothing Like a Dame," and driving anthems like the ever-timely "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." Ovation Award-winner Brent Crayon serves as Musical Director and First Keyboard Player, and Lee Martino (multiple Ovation and L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards) is CHOREOGRAPHER.

South Pacific premiered on Broadway in 1949 and became the second-longest running Broadway musical after Oklahoma!, winning eight Tony Awards (Best Musical, Best Libretto and Best Score, and Tony Awards in all four acting categories). In 1950, South Pacific received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and for the first time the committee included a composer (Richard Rodgers) in the drama prize. The Broadway Lincoln Center revival in 2008 won seven Tony Awards.

Photo Credit: Jeanne Tanner

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