WHAT WAS I THINKING? The First One, You Don't Forget

Although the spectacle was exciting, that’s not what impressed me most that night.  As the show began, I remember sitting there watching two Asian children about my age singing a simple little song, in French, yet!  Who are they, I wondered?  Where’s their parents?  Then a boat drops off the perky, likeable Nurse Nellie to visit the mysterious Emile, whom she barely knows.  For the next 20 minutes, these two people are alone on stage, speaking and singing to each other and the audience as they tentatively explore their mutual attraction to each other.  I remember really listening to them, closely following their thoughts and emotions.  When the sequence reached its climax with “Some Enchanted Evening,” one thing was clear. I wasn’t sure if Nellie and Emile would end up together (the war, you know) but I was damn sure of one thing.  I wanted them to.  I cared.

That night, I experienced what I discussed in a previous column, the joy of discovery.  My wish had been granted and I wasn’t disappointed.  Before long, I coerced my parents into taking me to a Broadway show, Pearl Bailey in Hello, Dolly! (‘nuff said), then another and another.  But South Pacific, that was the first one.  Ever since, I wanted to share it with the world.

The world wasn’t buying.  Most fellow musical lovers dismissed South Pacific as being “dated” or “corny.”  When I told my friends it was one of my favorite shows, they shook their heads and smiled that smile you save for the people you pity.   The original Broadway production in 1949, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, won 10 Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, sold out for over five years, toured for another five, and every song made the hit parade.  Despite all that, Its reputation seemed diminished, forgotten.  It took almost 60 years for South Pacific to get revived on Broadway.  Why?

The movie, that’s why.

In my humble opinion, the 1958 20^th Century Fox film version directed by Joshua Logan, starring Mitzi Gaynor and Rosanno Brazzi, is one of the most god awful movies of a Broadway musical ever made.  After years of arguing the merits of South Pacific with friends, it finally dawned on me that we were talking about two different things entirely.  I was talking about the show Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote.  They were talking about the god awful movie!

One fatal mistake makes it truly dreadful.  No, it’s not the casting.  And, no, it’s not what’s usually blamed, those what-the-hell-were-they-thinking color tints.  Have you seen it?  I mean, there’s Mitzi singing “When the sky is a bright canary yellow,” and suddenly, everything is yellow, including Mitzi!  Every time someone sings, the world and everyone in it turns red, blue or fuschia!  It’s ugly and distracting, an ill-advised experiment thought up by Logan and cinematographer Leon Shamroy.  But it’s not the main reason the film is a disaster.

They screwed up the story-telling.  The marvelous structure that works so well in the show, that first draws us into the main love story of Emile and Nellie with their 20-minute scene, followed by the humorous antics of Billis, the Seabees and Bloody Mary, which leads us into the tragic romantic subplot of Cable and Liat, all three carefully woven together - it wasn’t good enough for Fox.  You can just hear studio head Darryl F. Zanuck yelling at Logan, “You can’t spend millions on a movie and only have two people on the screen for the first half hour! That’ll lose ‘em in Dubuque!”

So, the movie doesn’t begin with Emile and Nellie quietly falling in love.  No, it starts with the exciting arrival of Cable on the beach by helicopter where we (and he) are introduced to Bloody Mary and Luther Billis.  That’s followed by a bevy of shirtless Seabees flexing their muscles and admiring themselves while they sing about women.  Somewhere in there, we briefly meet Nellie on the beach with Cable and Co.  She skedaddles, then Billis and Bloody Mary fight awhile which leads to her singing “Bali Ha'i” to Cable, which leads to Cable’s desire to … Do you see the problem?  By the time we finally meet poor old Emile de Becque and he sings "Some Enchanted Evening" to Nellie, we're 45 minutes into the movie and hopelessly confused.  What is this story really about?  Who are we supposed to want Nellie to end up with?  Emile?  Cable?  Bloody Mary?  And why is everyone turning pink?!

This is the South Pacific most people know.  ABC made a TV remake a few years ago with a miscast Glenn Close.  No one turns green and it does introduce Nellie and Emile earlier.  But it still begins on the beach with Cable and the Seabees.  And “Some Enchanted Evening” still happens a half hour too late.

When the wonderful Lincoln Center Theatre production directed by Bartlett Sher first opened, everyone was raving about the large orchestra and the fine cast.  Yeah, that was great.  But what I was really excited about was that the show I fell in love with all those years ago was finally being rediscovered for what it was all along - a timeless love story, beautifully told.

Sitting in the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on a summer night, watching the deceptively simple tale of Nellie and Emile finding each other despite their differences and prejudices, I found myself engulfed in tears, overwhelmed by the joy of what was happening to me.  Miraculously, I was 12 years old again, on another summer night, under the stars with the true breezes of the Atlantic merging with those of a fictional Pacific.  I was enjoying and sharing that treasured, precious first one all over again.  The first one that changes and defines you.  The one you definitely don’t forget.

South Pacific will be broadcast on PBS as part of its "Live From Lincoln Center" Series on Wednesday, August 18^th at 8pm. For a schedule of local repeat broadcasts visit www.pbs.org. After its initial showings, it will reportedly not be repeated or released on DVD, so DVR accordingly!