Emile In South Pacific

'South Pacific' brings tropics to town

With recent musical productions of “Oklahoma!” and “The Music Man,” the Marshfield Performing Arts Society is certainly not shying away from potentially intimidating material. This week’s performances of “South Pacific,” set for Friday-Sunday at the Carl and Glessie Young Community Auditorium, certainly continue that trend.

Adapted from the 1949 Broadway musical featuring music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, the story is drawn from James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book, “Tales of the South Pacific.” Likewise, the play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 and was adapted into a film in 1958.

Sandee DePriest is directing the MPAS production, which she said held auditions in the second week of April and has been in rehearsals since shortly thereafter. Taking on big musicals has been a big part of the short history of MPAS, she said, largely because audiences really like to see them. “South Pacific” was one of the productions high on the list to perform, she added.

Filling a cast out for the large musicals can pose a challenge, DePriest said, particularly for “South Pacific,” since it takes place on a U.S. naval base during World War II, requiring a large number of men. But her concerns about finding enough males willing to get up on stage to sing, act and dance were put to rest early on.

“We have a fabulous men’s chorus – a great group of guys. It has worked out beautifully,” she said. “I’m thrilled with the cast. Absolutely thrilled.”

The MPAS most recent production of “Willy Wonka Jr.” did a great job of letting more people know about the performing arts group, DePriest said. It brought in some new faces with fresh perspectives, which can be quite helpful in such a creative atmosphere. She added the hope is to build on that production’s success.

Spurred on by what she described as a “very dedicated” group of actors and crew members, DePriest said the production’s rehearsals have been going great, as it leads into this weekend’s shows.

“We are really in very good shape,” she said. “I’m really happy with where we are right now.”

Advance tickets are available at Beckerdite Music Company and Local Unique, Art & Antique in Marshfield, or online at www.marshfieldtheatre.org . Advance tickets are $10 for adults ages 18 and above, with youth tickets $5 for ages 3-17. At the door, prices are $12 for adults and $6 for youth.

SOUTH PACIFIC winds down…

What better way to approach the end of a run than to have a performance televised live.  That’s what happened with the extraordinary Bartlett Sher-directed production at Lincoln Center Theater that ends its long run this weekend.  Live From Lincoln Center is a wonderful idea and a wonderful program – through the PBS network, different individual performance from all over the Lincoln Center campus gets broadcast absolutely live.  OK, the PBS stations around the country can either show it live or choose a delayed broadcast , but to keep the title of the series accurate, any replay has to occur within two weeks of the live event.  Over the years there have been concerts, ballets, operas, plays, and musicals as part of the series, and it was thrilling to know that SOUTH PACIFIC would be included.

So it was a loyal and friendly group who assembled at the Beaumont on Wednesday night.  Our rules for the tickets we were offered was simple: either people who had never seen the production, or whose passion for it created the need for one final fix before the closing.  Some from the latter group had seen in five times or more.  The bittersweet nature of what was about to happen was discussed as we all milled about. The show would be good, that we knew.  And we also knew it would be captured.  But within a few days, it would be history.

Six cameras were surreptitiously placed throughout the house, one robotic one hugged the very front lip of the stage, one could be seen in the pit focused on conductor Ted Sperling,  and one crane swung overhead, planted at the rear of the house.  None of them bothered us – there is something to be said for the small size of high end television cameras these days.  We were comforted to know that when we got home we could take a look and see what the home viewers were seeing (many of whom texted, tweeted and BlackBerried all night long with blow-by-blow accolades…)

While it is normal for a long run to take on slightly peculiar reality all of its own, this production just got better and better.  Starting from Sperling’s impeccable tempo for the Overture (the composer would have been very happy) and the ‘coup de theatre’ that reveals the 30 piece orchestra, the performance was amazing.  Since we were seeing six of the original principal cast members – Kelli O’Hara (Nellie), Paulo Szot (Emile), Loretta Abeles Sayre (Bloody Mary), Danny Burstein (Luther Billis), Skipp Suddeth (Brackett) and Sean Cullen (Harbison) – it was great to see how even more brilliant each one of them has become since the beginning.  Kelli and Paulo seemed like they were made for each other, which made the nuances of the relationship between the characters incredibly real.  Loretta has created a Bloody Mary of such mystery, humor, anger, mischievousness, resentment – and no one will ever get the reaction that she receives from “made otta head!”  Danny found laughs where there never were laughs before – pausing, for example, just enough before the “-tute” in “substitute for” – and created a Billis of more depth than I’ve ever seen.  His touching relationship with Nellie has never been explored with as much resonance.  And Skipp and Sean made such sense out of the military presence and leadership in their office scenes that everyone in the theater knew exactly what was happening with the military action on that island. That’s not an easy accomplishment.

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