Image: Lisa McCune as Nellie. Photo: Jeff Busby.
This ground-breaking production swept the 2008 Tony Awards® and played to sold-out houses for two and a half years, making it one of the Lincoln Center Theater’s most successful productions. A sell-out London season was followed by a UK tour, before the show reached Australian shores and became a smash hit here, too.
The first Sydney season became the highest selling show ever performed at the Sydney Opera House. Ten minutes into the show, the Perth audience knew why. The singing, the choreography, the acting, the cast, the fabulous music played brilliantly by the Perth Symphony Orchestra – they all added up to a glorious night out. The cheapest tickets were around the $75 mark, and worth every cent. Of course, you could pay up to $202 for the best seats, but I doubt you would enjoy the show any more for having spent the extra cash. The sightlines are pretty good all over the Crown, and the seats very comfortable. The same praise, sadly, cannot be levelled at the acoustics, of which more later.
But let’s look at the good stuff, because it was very, very good. Perth girl Lisa McCune made a wonderful Nellie – she has the advantage of resembling Mitzi Gaynor, who was much loved as Nellie in the 1958 movie version. McCune, has of course, played many TV roles, but we don’t often get to hear her sing. But sing she can, and she should do more of it. The tragic lovers Blake Bowden and Celina Yuen as Liat made a touching contrast to the main couple, while Christine Anu, one of this country’s most impressive indigenous performers, was in every way a brilliant Bloody Mary– her acting and singing were both superb.
Emile was played by New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes, noted for his lovely baritone voice. This was the first time I’d heard him live and there is no denying that he is excellent. His acting and his charming French accent were also above reproach. However, he was miked throughout and here’s where the criticism of the acoustics comes in. I suspect that in trying to overcome the deficiencies of the venue’s natural acoustics (and they can, frankly, be terrible sometimes, no matter what show is playing) the sound people had over compensated. Strangely, the problem seemed only to affect Rhodes and the orchestra, which was also often over amplified.
Let me hasten to add that this problem was intermittent and by no means spoilt my enjoyment of the production. There was plenty of other stuff to admire and enjoy. For a start, there is the fabulous music – that Rodgers could dream up so many lovely songs for one show is almost incredible, and it would take more than dodgy acoustics to wreck them. Some of Rodgers’ best work is here – Some Enchanted Evening, There is Nothin’ Like a Dame, Bali Ha’I, Younger than Springtime, Happy Talk and I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair are all featured in South Pacific, and they flow along like liquid gold, carrying one gem after another to find realisation as a piece of musical jewellery. Stephen Gray and the PSO gave a wonderful rendition of every number, even with the unworkable acoustics.
South Pacific is a show in which every cast member has a unique role to play: in fact, the smaller roles are too numerous to mention. I cannot praise the male chorus highly enough! They sang, they danced, they cartwheeled, they jested – in short, they carried the plot along with their enthusiastic hi-jinks, yet each man was an individual with his own tale to tell. The ladies – Nellie’s fellow nurses – had little to do in comparison, but what they did was also excellent. Every performer was a versatile performance artist.
The costumes, sets and lighting added to the production’s brilliance. One could not help being aware that the performers, marvellous as they were, formed only a small tip of a very big iceberg indeed, and that there was a huge team backstage and in a workshop somewhere, all peddling furiously like ten-legged swans. Pardon the mixed metaphor, but one comparison is not enough to depict the craftsmanship that went into this production.
In short, don’t miss South Pacific. You may never get another chance to see such a wonderful production of this musical theatre classic. And do buy the utterly beautiful printed program. It is a souvenir that’s worth reading from cover to cover and keeping as a memento of this very special show.
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
Opera Australia and John Frost present
The Lincoln Center Theater Production of South Pacific
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Book: Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan.
Cast includes: Lisa McCune stars as Nellie, Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Emile, Mitchell Butel as Luther and Christine Anu as Bloody Mary
Perth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stephen Gray
Crown Theatre, Burswood
10 November-6 December
