“South Pacific” began with an orchestra comprising 29 musicians who played the opening number on the stage under blood-red lighting on Sunday afternoon at the Herberger Theater Center.
All of the musicians and their instruments, including a harp, took up the vast majority of the stage and, most likely, had more than a few theatergoers checking their programs to make sure they were actually attending a musical. After all, where exactly were the actors going to, well, act?
But with nothing for the audience to do but sit still and wait and see, it was easy to get lost in music. The orchestra, led by Artistic Director Adam Stich, was flawless. The ensemble played together beautifully throughout the whole performance.
“South Pacific” is a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and takes place on two islands during World War II. It tells the tale of two separate but parallel love stories — both of which are endangered because of prejudices from within the relationships. On one hand, there’s a woman who cannot accept the Polynesian children from her new love interest’s past relationship, and on the other, a lieutenant who finds himself saying he can’t marry an island girl he has fallen in love with.
The concert version of the show was produced by ProMusica Arizona and was performed Oct. 10-12. The actors and other performers had the immense challenge of creating a believable story with nothing more than the emotion in their voices as they sang, the delivery of their lines, whatever small prop could be carried on stage by hand and the limited space the orchestra left them on the stage.
The cast members all performed in front of microphones that lined the front edge of the stage with primarily music and lighting to set the scene. The show could have been a disaster, even with the talented orchestra, but ProMusica Arizona was very smart with its casting choices. The organization cast actors who could hold their own without a set or backdrop to contribute. The singing voices of the lead characters were big enough for Broadway, and they made the performance authentic, transporting the viewer back to the 1940s.
That’s probably largely due to the talent and experience of the cast. Kimberly Richard portrayed Nellie Forbush, a young Southern military nurse struggling to accept the possibility of becoming a mother to two young interracial girls. Richard has performed in many shows around the Valley and was often a crowd favorite. She had some of the best songs of the production including “I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair.”
Richard is a talented singer who performed each song enthusiastically and with an incredible amount of personality. Her voice could have easily stood on its own, but she put all of her effort into every single song she sang, earning a thunderous applause from the audience on multiple occasions. Brad Routh, who played her paramour Emile de Becque, an older French plantation owner, captured the audience’s attention in a different way.
Routh, who has a background in opera, was a regional semifinalist in a Metropolitan Opera competition in Chicago. Routh has mastered the art of singing with emotion, making his songs “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Was Nearly Mine” enrapturing performances. It was easy to hear the “wow” from some nearby audience members while listening to him sing the first time.
Ryan Kleinman, a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from the University of Arizona and actor whose past credits include “Oklahoma!” and “Cinderella,” portrayed young Lieutenant Cable, who falls in love with a native island girl, despite a small language barrier. Kleinman expertly performed the most thought-provoking song of the show, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” — a song about how prejudice and fear of differences isn’t something anyone is born with, but rather something that is taught. His love interest, Liat, was played by Gabrielle Paul.
The show’s cast was wonderfully assembled, from the sailors and the nurses to the all-woman choir, which occasionally sang behind the orchestra. However, there are two young actresses who deserve all the praise in the world. Kiara and Ava Adams, who portrayed Ngana and Jeanine, Emile’s young Polynesian daughters, performed their roles with more professionalism than could have been expected at their age. They sang their duet together, “Dites-Moi,” beautifully.
After the second act, the show ended with at least one happy ending, leaving the audience to contemplate the message the musical is most likely meant to convey: that love is love, and that prejudice has no place in matters of the heart.
Contact the author at jasmine.barta@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at mbilker@asu.edu.
