Is South Pacific relevant?
Is South Pacific, the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical now running in revival at the Vivien Beaumont, merely a dated period piece, or does it have something relevant to say to us these days? Admittedly, some of best known tunes from the show have turned into elevator music (“Some Enchanted Evening”), and some of the lyrics express a sentimentalism that may seem quaint to 21st century ears steeped in irony. Even the setting of the show, a backwater Navy outpost in the WWII Pacific, populat...
