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.

Plot

The main storyline concerns a U.S. Navy nurse stationed on a Pacific island during World War II. Having fallen in love with a middle-aged French plantation owner, she is shocked to discover that he has mixed-race children from an earlier relationship. A sub-plot deals with the romance between U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Joe Cable and a Tonkinese girl, Liat, the daughter of "Bloody Mary". Unfortunately, Lieutenant Cable is killed. The issue of racial prejudice is sensitively and candidly explored.

Related Topics:
U.S. Navy - World War II - U.S. Marine Corps - Bloody Mary

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