Regional Reviews: Seattle

South Pacific

The U.S. national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, is a solid, if unexciting rendition of the 1949 Tony award and Pulitzer Prize winner. Built around the name draw of its Emile deBecque, the still vocally potent Robert Goulet, the show is a pretty stock version of the original and certainly not the padded and overstuffed version that is playing the West End. Indeed, the chief virtue of this version, directed by Scott Faris (with Broadway vet Jerry Zaks credited as production consultant) is its unflagging pace.

This venerable stage musicalization of several stories from James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" contains many of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most popular songs, and they are largely done vocal justice by the tour cast. Amanda Watkins is a find as Arkansas bred nurse Nellie Forbush, giving the character a zanier/more hickish quality in early scenes and numbers that may be near what Mary Martin brought to the original. Her "Cockeyed Optimist", "Wonderful Guy," and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" are brassy, sassy and grand. She is so winning and personable that the moment that Nellie reveals her inbred prejudice and rejects Emile for having fathered two partly Tonkinese children is unusually wrenching. Goulet may scoop up to his high notes a bit more these days, but he is a good fit for the role of the older French planter Emile deBecque and has the older members of the audience swooning to his "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine." Also notable is the fact that he interacts well with Watkins, making the rushed quality of their romance blooming seem less contrived.

Gretha Boston, a remarkable vocalist who enacted a swell Queenie in Hal Prince's premiere Broadway revival cast of Show Boat, sings "Ba'li Hai" and "Happy Talk" with skill, but her overall demeanor is too regal, her diction too precise for the witch-like huckster Bloody Mary to come through to maximum effect. Likewise, Lewis Cleale looks the part of tragic secondary hero Lt. Joseph Cable and sings the hell out of "Younger Than Springtime", but in over-vocalizing and underacting "Carefully Taught," he minimizes the impact of one of Hammerstein's chanciest and most meaningful lyrics. A real plus to the production is David Warshofsky's rowdy and devilish Luther Billis. In Warshofsky's hands the hoariest of the character's laugh lines sparkle anew, and he camps up his drag bit in "Honey Bun" to grand effect. Kisha Howard's Liat is allowed a bit of dance break in "Happy Talk," and though she is clearly a fine dancer, Gary Chryst's choreography looks suspiciously as though it was lifted from a section of The King and I's "Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet. Chryst's choreography in general, even given the limited opportunities for dance in the script, is pretty lackluster.

Though Ken Billington's lighting design does its best to capture the glorious color of the South Seas islands, Derek McLane's flawed scenic design is neither literal nor imaginative enough, resembling nothing so much as a high school drama department's sets for the show. Gregg Barnes' costumes are attractive and approximate WWII era garb with dexterity.

If only for the music, South Pacific remains some enchanted evening, but some freshening and tweaking by the right director might renew the luster of this evergreen musical classic.

South Pacific runs at The Paramount Theatre in Seattle through June 23, 2002. For further information visit their web-site at www.theparamount.com.