South Pacific - Rodgers and Hammerstein
by Claire J Rottenberg
The musical "South Pacific" began when Joshua Logan
and Leland Hayward purchased the rights to James
Michener's novel, "Tales of the South Pacific." They
then asked Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
to write the music and book for the play. Rodgers and
Hammerstein agreed, but Hammerstein asked Logan, who
had served in WW II, to help write the book. Next,
the decision was made to hire Ezio Pinza and Mary
Martin to play the lead roles of Emile de Becque and
Nellie Forbush.
"South Pacific" opened on Broadway in April, 1949,
after tryouts in Boston and New Haven. The
production, directed by Joshua Logan, ran on Broadway
for over five years and for 1,925 performances.
The score from "South Pacific" contains some of the
most beautiful and powerful songs written by Rodgers
and Hammerstein. The lyrics of "You've Got to Be
Carefully Taught" are particularly strong, as they
deal with the issue of prejudice and hatred that is
too often instilled in young children by their
parents and communities. The film also has wonderful
comic and upbeat songs, such as "Honey Bun."
The movie version of "South Pacific" was made in 1958
and it was directed by Joshua Logan. The cast for the
film was a mixture of Broadway and film actors.
Rossano Brazzi was the only big-name film actor hired
for the movie, but Mitzi Gaynor had a successful film
career before "South Pacific" and John Kerr had
achieved some fame with his earlier role in "Tea and
Sympathy." Most of the supporting roles went to
Broadway performers, such as Ray Walston.
"South Pacific" has one of the longest scores for a
movie musical, with 16 songs. All of the songs from
the original Broadway play were retained and one
song, "My Girl Back Home," that was cut from the
Broadway production was added back into the
film.