When it arrived on Broadway, Rodgers and Hammerstein's “South Pacific,” with its timely social message, found a ready audience. It ran for a record-breaking 1,925 performances. Its wonderful music, with lush orchestration, and with such songs as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Nothing Like A Dame,” “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” and “Bali Ha’i,” made it a Broadway classic. The musicians featured from our all star fine arts program make it a treat for the ears!
The show was most recently revived in 2008 at Lincoln Center Theatre, receiving 7 Tony Awards and playing to sold-out houses for over two years. Almost 70 years after its Broadway debut, the "South Pacific" story continues to carries cautionary messages on racism in America, seen as quite controversial in 1949. How does this message still resonate today?
When I set out to direct this powerful and classic piece of Golden Age musical theatre, I knew there were going to be challenges in reaching modern audiences, as well as actors. While the subject matter appears to be just as current as ever, the style is stylistically more operatic and in less of a "fast pace" than we have come to expect from the Broadway stage.
To address this challenge, I opted toward a more modern use of tech, using the latest industry designing methods, as well as the addition of dance components for enhanced spectacle.
The converging of several styles of dance seemed to me a natural direction for a show that has stood the test of time. Just as musical tastes evolves and adapt, so too does the way we express ourselves in movement. Bridging hip-hop dance with the original Broadway score was very exciting for me to attempt. Torain Braxton did an amazing job with this!
Megan Hillary's choreography is brilliantly set, not only to tell the story through ballet, but also to enhance the thematic elements of the show in the reinvented number, "You've Got To be Taught".
I hope you leave the theater today feeling warmth and optimism. While we have difficult conversations ahead of us as a nation, I am certain that through music, dance, and love, we can find a way to heal and celebrate what we have in common, and the qualities that make us different and beautiful.
Enjoy the show!
David Becker
