This breathtaking and lavish Lincoln Center Theater production reinvented Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical. It swept the 2008 Tony Awards, played for two years to sold-out houses on Broadway and was televised across America. With a cast and live orchestra of 50, this international hit landmark production is brought to you by the producers of West Side Story and Guys and Dolls. Read more …
Metropolitan Opera Director and winner of Tony Award for Best Director, Bartlett Sher, directs a stellar cast which includes the internationally acclaimed Jason Howard (Welsh National Opera), Tony Award nominee Loretta Ables Sayre as 'Bloody Mary', plus musical theatre stars Samantha Womack, Alex Ferns (Donmar's Guys and Dolls) and Daniel Koek (West Side Story).
Considered one of the finest musicals ever written, the score includes Some Enchanted Evening, I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair and There is Nothin' Like a Dame. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to witness one of the greatest musicals of all time, as the critics agree, 'this is a show you will remember forever!'
This is a production of almost continuous pleasure, a classic of American musical theatre revived with the love and respect it richly deserves.
Sher’s slavish adherence to the complete score and the inclusion of a deleted number ensures that audiences get all the meat and bones of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway hit, but with sadly very little of its spirit.
It makes for a pleasant evening, but one that suggests New York has little to teach us about resurrecting the Broadway past.
Not quite as enchanting an evening as it promised to be.
With great lighting by Donald Holder, there’s a splendid marching retreat in silhouette. But the timeless element of American imperialism muddling through in a series of local compromises – in a musical, of course, these are romantic and personal – is too unfocussed and understated.
Bartlett Sher's production of South Pacific arrives from Lincoln Centre, New York mightily hailed. Why?
Mildly underwhelming.
The clever staging and slick young ensemble cast are what turns this show from a good one into a great one, although brace yourself for a very long act one.
A show guaranteed to have the audience indulging in some happy talk about its merits, as they head for the exit door.
The beauty and strength of the score puts every musical written in the last three decades comprehensively in the shade, and make us blush for our 21st century lack of creative ambition, of optimism, lyricism, and heart.
Bartlett Sher’s production, based on a Tony-scooping New York revival, places a refreshing emphasis on character that heightens the sense of drama in these numbers.
South Pacific has all of the ingredients necessary to be something quite delicious: the design is fluid and the orchestrations rich; the ensemble tight and the staging colourful. And yet, its flavour does not truly come through.
The show’s saving grace is a gung-ho cast that have really embraced the attitude of a bunch of rough and ready service personnel trying their best to get up to mischief.
This is a slick, well-staged and thoroughly entertaining production – with enough standout moments to ensure a memorable night out.
Too often fine musicals from the past have their reputations sullied by cheap and unimaginative touring versions so there is a real joy to seeing and particularly hearing this fine production of a classic musical.
South Pacific: the uncut version
'Psycho' is a Dame for a laugh!
Theatre Royal, Glasgow from Tuesday November 8, 2011, until Saturday November 19, 2011. More info: www.theambassadors.com/theatreroyalglasgow/
Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh from Tuesday April 3, 2012, until Saturday April 14, 2012. More info: www.edinburghplayhouse.org.uk
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