South Pacific

South Pacific is a musical play with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II that opened on Broadway on April 7, 1949, and ran for more than five years. It is generally considered to be one of the greatest musicals of all time and a number of its songs, such as Bali Ha'i, Younger than Springtime, and Some Enchanted Evening, have become worldwide standards. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. The play is based upon two short stories by James A. Michener from his book Tales of the South Pacific, which itself was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. The original cast starred Mary Martin as the heroine Nellie Forbush and opera star Ezio Pinza as Emile de Becque, the French plantation owner. Also in the cast were Juanita Hall, Myron McCormick, Betta St. John, and William Tabbert.

1958 musical film

The musical was made into a successful film of 1958, starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor in the leading roles, with Juanita Hall in the part of Bloody Mary that she had played in the original stage production. Metropolitan Opera star Giorgio Tozzi provided the voice for the role of Emile de Becque. Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, served as the filming location for the movie. The film is notorious for the use of colored filters during many of the song sequences, which has been almost universally poorly received.

Related Topics:
1958 - Rossano Brazzi - Mitzi Gaynor - Juanita Hall - Kauai - Hawaiian Islands

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