South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 2:44pm

I'm looking at picking up South Pacific, but was wondering which recording I should look at getting?
I know there are multiple versions out there, but I'm looking for something complete with a good cast. Anybody have suggestions?
Thank you!

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. --Dave Berry

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 2:47pm

i rather like the Reba/Stokes one that was recently released. i listen to that one quite often

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 3:00pm

Get the Film Soundtrack or the Mary Martin original...AVOID THE TV MOVIE SOUNDTRACK WITH GLENN CLOSE AT ALL COSTS!

"It does what a musical is supposed to do; it takes you to another world. And it gives you a little tune to carry in your head. Something to take you away from the dreary horrors of the real world. A little something for when you're feeling blue. You know?"

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 3:36pm

If you want some authenticity, go for the Original Broadway cast with Mary Martin. It's not complete at all, but it is pretty wonderful. The recent Reba/Stokes Carnegie Hall version is pretty terrific. Reba scoops up, Stokes falls off, Lilias and Jason are amazing and Alec is very funny. Orchestra sounds fantastic and you get the Live nature of the event. It regularly makes its way into my Cd player.

But if you're willing to wait a couple months, the Lincoln Center cast will probably have theirs out by summer 08.

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 3:45pm

Will there be a new one this Spring with the great cast and 30-piece orchestra Ted Sperling will lead at Lincoln Center Theater?

I hope so!

Certainly the R & H organization should agree to that if they didn't for the Oklahoma on Broadway recently. Although it had the terrific Patrick Wilson it had that British woman as Laurie who couldn't really sing and would have been awful.

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 7:55pm

I love the Mary Martin recording, but if you can find it at a library, watch the concert with Reba and Stokes. I didn't like "South Pacific" at all until I watched it. Then, I understood why it won a Pulitzer Prize.

Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:28pm

London Revival

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 10:11pm

I love the Carnegie Hall recording. I won it right here on BWW, so I got it for free and didn't have to love it. But I really, really do. It makes me cry and it makes me laugh and it makes the hair on my arms tingle.

"Love Life. Live." Michael Bennett

Updated On: 12/21/07 at 10:11 PM

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 10:16pm

I would gowith the Original Broadway Cast (Mary Martin). You will get good vocals from all the cast and it is complete as it is the Original.

#10

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 10:19pm

I have the Motion Picture recording and it's ok, pity about the quality being so poor and crackly, but maybe there are re-mastered versions about. I also have a Full symphonic, with a crap cast, but great orchestra, as such recordings so often are.

The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.

Derek Mahon

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."

Arthur Miller

#11

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/21/07 at 11:37pm

The overture on the original is so lush. I can close my eyes and get transported back to the Majestic Theater in '49 (no, I wasn't born then). It's just a great time capsule.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699

#12

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 1:56am

There's only one recording of South Pacific as far as I'm concerned. With the original you will understand why Mary Martin was an audience favorite, why an opera singer needs to sing Emile (though Stokes did an excellent "This Nearly Was Mine"), why "You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught" is the most important song in the piece, and why Juanita Hall won the Best Supporting Actress Tony.

#13

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 2:04am

I would get the Original Cast Recording for all the reasons Jewishboy describes, and the recent Carnegie Hall concert recording for completeness (performances are nicer than the Paige O'Hara JAY recording, though I'm not sure if the JAY is even more complete than the Carnegie Hall).
Mary Martin's Nellie can't be beat.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#14

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 2:54am

Anyone here have an opinion on the National Theatre version?

Xanadu! Can't cry on cue!

#15

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 5:41am

I have to cast my vote for the Carnegie Hall (Reba / Stokes) recording. I just bought it a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely love it. I know other people have said that they don’t care for Brian Stokes Mitchell but he made me fall in love with “What Nearly Was Mine.” I used to hate that song, I felt like it was too long, just going on forever repeating the same thing over and over again; now it’s my favorite song in the show. Reba is perfect as Nellie. She is a home spun sweet as apple pie all American girl who captures that character in every way.

#16

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 6:27am

The National Theatre/London Revival is amazing. Lauren Kennedy and Phillip Quast sing Rodgers and Hammerst. as if they've never done anything else their whole life. Saw the show as well, and loved it! So get that one!!!!

Popular...You're gonna be Popuular....;)

#17

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 7:40am

I agree that the Original Cast Recording is the one to get. I think that Mary Martin must have been amazing to see onstage.

#18

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/22/07 at 8:25am

allofmylife, I adore the overture! Most played track on the album for me.

#19

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/23/07 at 4:55am

Janki, thanks for your opinions. I was debting if I should get the NT cast or not, and I guess I'll have to check it out now.

Xanadu! Can't cry on cue!

#20

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/23/07 at 5:37am

Absolutely - the NT recording is a superb memento of a stunning show. I have most of the SP recordings, and now I never play anything other than the NT one. Lauren Kennedy and Philip Quast are, for me, the definitive Nellie and Emile.

#21

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/23/07 at 12:10pm

The London recording is flawless. Much as I like the idea of O'Hara as Nellie, I wish Kennedy was doing the role at Lincoln Center.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#22

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/23/07 at 4:10pm

The original hands down. No question. Second would be Carnegie Hall.

The worst recording has to be the studio cast recording with Kiri te Kanawa, Jose Carreras, Mandy Patinkin and Sarah Vaughan. Thoroughly awful in every way.

#23

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/23/07 at 8:33pm

Vmlinnie,

I directed a production of the show in the 1970's. Our orchestra was nine violins, three viola, two celli, two string bass (doubling tubas) and the usual R&H five reed, three trumpet, two trombone, percussion piano and for the only time a harp. A thiry piece orcehstra. You coulnd't store a snickers bar in that pit.

But what a sound. When that overture blasts out with the Bali Hai theme, MAN does the hair on your neck go up.

Funny story I heard: During the original run, R&H had three shows running on Broadway simultaneously. Thieves would buy front row seats and then send them to rich people with a "letter" from Richard Rogers saying "here's the tickets I promised." Of course, tickets were rarer than hen's teeth.

Then, while the people were at the show (and they ALWAYS went) their houses would be burgled.

#24

re: South Pacific (Which Recording?)

Posted: 12/24/07 at 3:24am

I think that South Pacific may be my favorite R&H score. The King & I is a close second ...

I have the OBC, the recent London cast and the Reba/Stokes cast. All of these have value, but if you are going to choose just one, I say get the original. Martin & Pinza are perfection, the orchestrations are divine and it clips right along.

Laughter is much more important than applause. Applause is almost a duty. Laughter is a reward. Carol Channing

← Back to Message Board

View all Videos

Tickets From $59

Tickets From $71

Tickets From $95