So Pathetic — Page 2

Oklahoma, aside from the fact that it WAS so groundbreaking is so darn Amrerican. As a transplanted Canadian, I must say that Oklahoma seems to symbolize all that I came to The States to experience. The joy, the exhuberace of a young, wide, tall, virile country; a country so alive with promise for the future. (Although the last five years under Bush have totally turned me off. I now find it so hard to see what I saw before and that's such a shame. And a digression).

Remember that the show opened in 1943, when things weren't going very well for America. A war on two fronts, both of which were blood-soaked sloggings. And yet, in the depth of the war, here was this show that just screamed of the American dream. That's what first made people love it.

And to this day, it's possible to get swept up in this simple story about a Sunday social and a box lunch (and yes, a murder, but that's very American, too, isn't it?) and a boy and a girl and a buggy with eisenglass curtains.

The reason people love it is becove it's a show that simply loves its setting and its characters.

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I am holding my breath to see what Michael Yeargan does with the set for the revival.

I love South Pacific! Did anyone see the recent revival at the National Theatre in London? I thought it was superb, and reminded me of what a great show this really is. The book and the score are first-rate. Gonna go listen to it now.

Mary P x

"The production I saw opened with "Bloody Mary" followed by "Nothing Like a Dame" and "Bali Ha'i". Then they transitioned into the scene with Nellie and Emile. I liked that structure a lot better. obviously, people are going to be more accustomed to which ever version they saw first, but for me that was a much better structure and I wouldn't want to see it done any other way. it was flawless, and it is in my opinion very difficult to bring a flawless South Pacific to the stage."

Your 'flawless' structure is a complete ripoff from the the movie. Unless the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization sanctioned it for the production you saw, they would have shut it down fast. This pointless restructuring of the story delays the entrance of the leading man and lady by about 25 minutes and puts the emphasis on the secondary lead of Lt.Cable. No doubt the movie took this misstep in order to give its heartthrob John Kerr greater focus but it's dumb and throws the entire story out of whack.

Ensign Lisa Minnelli
French Polynesia

That structure you describe Hunter was used for the London RNT staging a couple of years ago. Perhaps thats the production he saw. I actually agree, however, that the show as originally written is perfect and don't believe changing the order of those scenes is nearly as effective. It takes too long to get to the main characters and the central theme of the show.

And I don't believe Susan Stroman was involved in the RNT production. She came and went with OKLAHOMA!.

Updated On: 4/28/06 at 06:46 PM

"Her breaking up with him because his children are "half-caste" seems unmotivated and just thrown in to have the act end with some conflict. There is no indication in the first act that she had a problem."

Not true. There is a scene in the first act where she gets a letter from her mother, and she tells Cable that her mother is "so prejudiced." How her mother has a thing against people with "different backgrounds." She asks him how he feels about it. This is a straight thru-line that goes from her difficulty with accepting DeBecque's relationship with the Polynesian woman (because it seems she cannot get past her provincial Little Rock upbringing, despite herself)to Cable's "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught."

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As a writer, as a screenwriter to be precise, I am amazed by a good musical book. I have 120 or so pages to tell a story whereas the librettist has about 40 pages to get the entire story across. Granted, the lyrics should continue the story but they also have to reflect ON the characters so really, it's less than four dozen pages of dialogue to get the job done. When one considers how much happens in "South Pacific" on those 40 pages, it's just plain impressive. Certainly, by the time Rodgers and Hammerstein tackled "South Pacific" they had decades of experience but they really were charting new territory. They were bringing subjects to the stage that were rarely apparent in the frothy world of musical comedy. They called the show "a musical drama" which indicated they were reaching for something new and exciting and the long, long run on Broadway and at Drury Lane, plus the DOZENS of touring compainies and international productions really show they achieved their goals.

And that ain't to damn bad.

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