Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
South Pacific
Starring:
Mark Hamilton as “Emile de Becque”
Paige Hallett as “Ensign Nellie Forbush”
Joy T. Barnum as “Bloody Mary”
Robbie Godfrey as “Lt. Joseph Cable”
Alexander Damon Rosati as “Seabee Luther Billis”
Will Kemp as “Capt. George Brackett”
David Sinclair-Minors as “Cmdr. William Harbison”
Kayla Williams as “Liat”
Sedona Sky-Duffy as “Ngana” (1)
Vidya Cannonier-Watson as “Ngana” (2)
Caden Minors as “Jerome” (1)
Onuri Smith as “Jerome” (2)
Che Barker as “Henry”
Male Ensemble
Shawn Angiers
Gavin Collery
Geoff Faiella
Micah Jimenez
Owain Johnston-Barnes
Kyle Simmons
Marcus Smith
Female Ensemble
Sophia Cannonier
Kaurie Daniels
Hannah Dill
Tifa Hah
Katrina Kawley-Lathan
Brandi Keating
Pamela Lavery
Lilybell Ng
Lizz Pimentel
Jennifer Stervinou
Sam Willis
Candice Musselman
Childrens’ Chorus (Red Team)
Gabriela Botello
Linnea Kuruvilla
Genevieve Lau
Abigail Lavery
Olwyn Matthews
Dakota Tucker
T'aja Williams
Childrens Chorus (Blue Team)
Blue Team
Lola Barker
Jaela Bean-Lindo
Olivia Currelly
Tristan Currelly
Soleil Richardson
Isaiah rickards
Ezekiel Jimenez
OUR ARTISTIC TEAM:
Artistic Director - Jenny Sawyer
Musical Director - Philip Shute
Stage Manager - David Curl
Set Designer - Cleo Pettitt
Lighting Designer - Andy Vere
Sound Designer – Richard de Whittaker
South Pacific
General Synopsis
Set against the dramatic backdrop of World War II this classic musical follows the lives of civilian and United States military personnel on a small Island in the South Pacific in the Solomon Island chain. The Islands have a strategically important position in the campaign against the Japanese and are inhabited by native islanders called Tonkinese. Also on the island are various U.S. military personnel including navy "Seabees," navy engineers and builders (enlisted men), who have become restless over their separation from their own sweethearts back home, and a small but dedicated band of Navy nurses who staff the local Navy Hospital.
The plot, derived from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, centers around two love affairs, the first being the one between a young naive, navy nurse, Ensign Nellie Forbush, from Little Rock, Arkansas and a local, cultured middle-aged French plantation owner named Emile de Becque. Nellie has fallen in love with Emile despite their different cultures and ages; however, she struggles with the fact that Emile has two mixed race children, Ngana and Jerome from a prior marriage with a local Tonkinese woman, now deceased.
The second romance is between a young lieutenant from Philadelphia, Lt. Joseph Cable, U.S.M.C., and a young Tonkinese girl, Liat, daughter of mysterious and shrewd local trader, "Bloody" Mary, who lives on the neighboring exotic island of Bali Ha'i. Bloody Mary meets Lt. Cable in the midst of her trading and skirmishing with the "Sea Lawyer" and general con-man, Seabee Luther Billis. Lt. Cable has been sent on a secret mission to enlist the help of Emile for a scouting expedition to a Japanese controlled island to ascertain the movements of Japanese ships through a narrow straight of the nearby ocean waters, known as "the Slot." Lt. Cable, similarly, experiences feelings of fear and misgivings due to the race of Liat and struggles with his own racism and bigotry in the face of his intense love for her.
The play is the ultimate expression of the triumph of love over the hate of racism and a dramatic allegory of the world's own triumph in World War II; the forces of freedom and democracy defeating the forces of hatred, fascism and domination throughout the globe. Love, indeed, conquers all, and in the beautiful, and often haunting, music and stories of Rodgers and Hammerstein the audience will get swept up in that feeling and find itself on its "own special island" in the exotic and sublime South Pacific.
Act I
When the play opens we discover Emile, the happy father playing with his children who sing a delightful French song he taught them. ("Dites-moi"). He hides them from Nellie who arrives for afternoon tea. The two spend some hesitating moments wondering whether the other reciprocates their growing feelings. ("Twin Soliloquies"). Discovering that their feelings are mutual, Nellie muses that, despite all their differences, everything will work out between them, singing about the fact that she is always the optimist ("Cock Eyed Optimist"). Emile romantically recalls the time he first set eyes on Nellie at an officer's club dance, falling in love with her instantly. ("Some Enchanted Evening"). Nellie, clearly smitten, promises to think of their relationship and departs.
Meanwhile, the restless American Seabees, led by the ever-crafty Billis, lament the absence of available women – Navy nurses are commissioned officers and off-limits to enlisted men. There is one civilian woman on the island, "Bloody” Mary who arrives to engage the sailors in sarcastic, flirtatious banter as she tries to sell them her wares ("Bloody Mary"). Billis yearns to visit the nearby island of Bali Ha'i — which is off-limits to all but officers. This is supposedly to witness a boar's tooth ceremony, but the other sailors tease him, saying that his real motivation is to see the young French women there. Billis and the sailors further lament their lack of feminine companionship ("There is Nothing Like a Dame").
Lt. Cable arrives from Guadalcanal with orders to liaise with the local naval commander, Captain George Brackett, U.S.N., and his executive officer, Cmdr. William Harbison, U.S.N., and obtain Emile's assistance in his scouting mission. Emile's knowledge of the geography of the neighboring islands is deemed to be of the utmost importance to his mission which, in turn, is hoped will turn the tide of the war in the Pacific in favor of the Allies.
Bloody Mary immediately notices the dashing young Marine and entices him to visit Bali Ha'i telling him of all its exotic delights ("Bali Ha'i"). Lt. Cable initially rebuffs Bloody Mary and instead meets with Cpt. Brackett and Cmdr. Harbison who decide to enlist the help of Nellie to see if she can approach Emile to find out more about him. She meets with her superior officers who advise her that Emile had to leave France when he was young because he murdered a man. Flustered by this news Nellie agrees to think about it.
Nellie returns to her fellow nurses determined to spurn Emile whom she realizes she knows little about ("I'm Gonna wash That Man Right Outa' My Hair"); however, when he arrives and invites her to a party in her honor, she accepts. In their ensuing conversation Emile reveals that he is committed to principles of freedom and that he left France because he, indeed, killed a man. He relates that the man was a local bully and terrorizer of his town in France whom he stood up to, and that the man died accidentally in their ensuing fight. Upon hearing this Nellie resigns herself to the fact that she is truly in love (“I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy").
Emile is summoned to a meeting with the navy officers who, point blank, ask him to assist Lt. Cable's Mission. Not wanting to endanger his new life with Nellie, he refuses. Cpt. Brackett instructs Lt. Cable to go on leave until the mission takes place. With little to do on the Island, Billis convinces Lt. Cable to requisition a launch to visit Bali Ha'i for "R and R." On the island Lt. Cable is introduced by Bloody Mary to her daughter, who only speaks French. Mary hopes to give her daughter a better life by marrying her to the dashing young officer. The two fall instantly in love and spend the evening together ("Younger than Springtime"). Early the next morning Billis and the rest of the crew are ready to leave the island, yet must wait for Cable who, unbeknownst to them, is with Liat ("Bali Ha'i" (Reprise)). Bloody Mary proudly tells Billis that Cable is going to be her son-in-law.
At the same time, after Emile's party, Nellie and he reflect on how in love they are (Reprises of "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", "Twin Soliloquies", "Cockeyed Optimist" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"). Emile introduces Nellie to Jerome and Ngana. Though she finds them charming, she is shocked when Emile reveals that they are his children by his first wife, a dark-skinned Polynesian woman, now deceased. Nellie is unable to overcome her deep-seated racial prejudices and tearfully leaves Emile, after which he reflects sadly on what might have been ("Some Enchanted Evening" (Reprise)).
Act II
Time has passed and it is Thanksgiving Day. The nurses put on a big show for the sailors and soldiers on the island for the holiday called the "Thanksgiving Follies". Lt. Cable has also spent more time with Liat and their love has deepened. Bloody Mary encourages this and talks of the happy times the couple will have when they are married. (“Happy Talk"). Lt. Cable, from an upper-class, and bigoted, Philadelphia family, advises her that marriage is out of the question due to Liat’s race. Furious, Mary drags Liat off to be married to another local French plantation owner. Deeply saddened and conflicted, Lt. Cable despairs that he has lost Liat forever (“Younger than Springtime(Reprise)").
The final musical number of the Thanksgiving Follies, Nellie performs a comedy burlesque dressed as a sailor singing the praises of "his" sweetheart ("Honey Bun"). Billis plays "Honey Bun," dressed in a blond wig, grass skirt and coconut-shell bra. After the show, Emile asks Nellie to reconsider, however, she again re-buffs him. Frustrated and uncomprehending, Emile asks Lt. Cable why he and Nellie have such prejudices. Lt. Cable, filled with self-loathing, replies that "it's not something you're born with", it is part of their upbringing ("You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"). He also vows that if he gets out of the war alive, he won't go home to the United States; everything he wants is on these islands. Emile imagines what might have been ("This Nearly Was Mine"). Dejected and feeling that he has nothing to lose, he agrees to join Cable on his dangerous mission.
The mission begins with plenty of air support. Offstage, Billis stows away on the plane, falls out when the plane is hit by anti-aircraft fire, and ends up in the ocean waiting to be rescued; the massive rescue operation inadvertently becomes a diversion that allows Emile and Lt. Cable to slip onto the Japanese controlled island undetected. The two send back reports on Japanese ships' movements allowing American aircraft intercept and destroy them. [SPOILER ALERT! Don’t read past here if you do not want to know the ending before-hand!] When Japanese Zeros strafe the Allies' position, Emile narrowly escapes, but Lt. Cable is killed.
Nellie learns of Lt. Cable's death and that Emile is missing. She realizes that she was foolish to reject Emile because of the race of his children and their mother. Bloody Mary and Liat then arrive with Mary explaining that Liat refuses to marry anyone but Lt. Cable. Nellie is forced to break the news of Lt. Cable’s death and she comforts Liat.
Later we learn that Lt. Cable and Emile's espionage work has made it possible for a major offensive, "Operation Alligator," to begin. Nellie spends time with Jerome and Ngana and soon comes to love them. While the children are teaching her to sing "Dites-Moi," suddenly Emile's voice joins them. Emile has returned to discover that Nellie has overcome her prejudices and has fallen in love with his children. Emile, Nellie and the children rejoice ("Dites-Moi" (Reprise)).
The End
South Pacific © 1949 Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. South Pacific is presented through special arrangement with R&H Theatricals. www.rnh.com