Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific- Page 2
Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
MIM2
Swing Joined: 3/22/08
#25re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 3:06pmI always found S.P. a bore, too. I could never understand what Emile saw in Nellie Forbush. And as for Bloody Mary, she seems like a pimp for her daughter. Lt. Cable and Liat are a nothing couple and seem like just a hook-up for one night only. They remind me of Pinkerton and Butterfly, wham bam, thank you maam, and goodbye. (Thanks for the memory.) The sailors and Billis are just plain silly. I do recall thinking that Ezio Pinza was a very dashing Emile with that operatic voice to die for! I guess the bottom line is that I really didn't care about the characters as portrayed.
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#26re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 3:11pm
I LOATHE "South Pacific". Nellie comes across as a spineless simp, "Happy Talk" is insipid, and how many times can you reprise "Some Enchanted Evening"?
The only R&H I really like is "Carousel"; the rest have been done to death.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#27re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 3:19pm
I'm honestly not a big fan either, for the reasons you talk about. I just think it's from another era. I'd love to see the revival, but it always seems like I'm trying the show again to see if I like it.
Sondheim has said its the least-revived R&H show and for a good reason.
Broadway Mouth: Hearing the Sweet Smell of Success
Updated On: 4/3/08 at 03:19 PM
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#28re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 4:41pmI'm not that fond of it, but I haven't really seen it live either (just the two movie versions and the concert with Brian Stokes Mitchell). The only R&H shows I really love are Carousel, Cinderella, and Flower Drum Song (okay, so it's also quite dated, but I looove the score).
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
#29re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 5:14pm
Not a South Pacific fan either...but I've never seen a first rate production of it. And as much as I find the show a bit of a snoozer, I am considering giving the new revival a shot. Maybe this one can change my mind?
I hate the revival of my FAVORITE musical, Gypsy...so maybe, I will like the revival of one of my least favorites, South Pacific. Who Knows?
#30re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 6:26pm
I didn't really enjoy 'South Pacific' until I was bumping up the number of Philip Quast shows in my cast recordings collection. I'll take any number of old-fashioned attitudes and mind-numbing reprises to listen to that man sing R&H in a French accent! *swoons!*
sparkleplenty
Stand-by Joined: 9/4/07
#31re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 7:18pm
Love the score - hate Nellie.
PC or no...she is just obnoxious
#32re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/3/08 at 8:20pmI'm not a fan of South Pacific either. Too many of the scenes seem to go on forever....the book is the weak link.
#33re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/4/08 at 12:59am
I saw it in a very good Pittsburgh CLO production and realized that it's not a very good show.
It's one terrific song after another, but they aren't as integrated into the story as well as the songs in "King and I" or "Carousel" or "Oklahoma" are.
I only knew it from the long, rather boring, weirdly tinted Josh Logan movie. So, seeing the original book was where the disapointment came in.
She doesn't find out that the little half-caste kids running around are his until right before intermission, which makes her "I can't marry you!" seem as contrived a plot complication as you had in any of the musical comedies from the 1920s.
And with all that happens in the second act, her deciding to stay with him seems just as contrived.
But Hammerstein's librettos have always been wordy.
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
#34re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/4/08 at 10:45amI didn't really have a problem with South Pacific....until we did a production of it. Now it is probably the only musical that I actually despise. Too bad though, because the new production looks promising. I just don't like the story, the music, or anything about it.
#35re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/4/08 at 7:13pmI have done the show twice as Jerome (thank the lord im too old for that role now) and would like to play cable some day. OF the big 5 Carousel is my favorite but this is definitly my second. I just dont like King and I. Oklahoma bores me and i have never seen SOund of Music on stage but i love the movie. I am excited for this current production and hope i have the money to see it when I go to NY in august.
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#36re: Confession: I've always disliked South Pacific
Posted: 4/5/08 at 2:18am
"Happy Talk" is insipid
I think Happy Talk is kind of racist.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
Wanting life but never knowing how
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