Newsday, June 2005

SOUTH PACIFIC. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rodgers. Performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke's under Paul Gemignani. Attended Thursday at Carnegie Hall. Information at www.carnegiehall.org or 212-247-7800.

For all its talk of paradise and swirling evocations of tropical enchantment, South Pacific has a distinctly after-the-fall sensibility. Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1949 musical, based on James Michener, is filled with characters seeking a fresh start and a blissful union with their "one partner in paradise."

Their Eden, though, is a launching-pad for Pacific Theater operations in
World War II, whose carnage made Cain's murder of Abel seem an innocent fit of pique in comparison. Here grass skirts and rustic bracelets, once items of religious significance, have become objects of tawdry commerce. God's children, too, have learned to spurn their brethren whose "eyes are oddly made" and "skin is a different shade."

This rich drama, underpinned by an unmatched bounty of classic songs, was presented in concert as a benefit for Carnegie Hall and filmed for PBS's "Great Performances" in 2006. From the overture's first phrases, the Orchestra of St. Luke's under Paul Gemignani served up string tone as lush and revitalizing as the waters off a tropical island. Their playing was alert and sensitive throughout, nowhere more than in "Younger Than Springtime," whose rapture was tinged with uncertainty, foreshadowing the doomed love of Lieutenant Cable and the Tonkinese Liat.

Carnegie Hall assembled the dandiest male chorus in memory: some 40 lusty-voiced fellows who launched into "Bloody Mary" while flinging off their jackets, revealing biceps and brawn that drew shrieks of appreciation from the house. Their female counterparts, scanter in number, also sang well and flashed shapely gams in the spirit of equal-opportunity sex-appeal.

Leading the cast were Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush, the "hick" from
Little Rock, and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile de Becque, the father of
mixed-race children who woos her. At her best, in the show-stopping "Honey Bun," McEntire lit up the hall with her bouncy and infectious vocals and superb timing. At other times, her country-style swoops made mush of Hammerstein's words, and she seemed under-rehearsed. Equally masterful in dialogue and song, Mitchell broke hearts with his hushed, soulful "This Nearly Was Mine" and made a grandly romantic Emile.

Bold of gesture and generous of tone, Lillias White as Bloody Mary filled
"Bali Ha'i" with mystery and "Happy Talk" with lilting charm. Jason
Danieley poignantly traced Lieutenant Cable's trajectory from a
straight-arrow Marine, to a man obsessed with Bali Ha'i's charms, to a
trembling and hopeless malaria victim. Alec Baldwin, a wisecracking Luther Billis, performed an uproariously resigned burlesque dance during the "Thanksgiving Follies," and Alex de Castro and Alexio Barboza were
adorable as Emile’s children.

Smaller roles were strongly performed, and Alan Adelman's lighting
drenched Carnegie's stage in the hues of tropical sunshine and flowers.
Add to this Walter Bobbie's smartly-paced direction, and think about
firing up your DVR in advance, because this South Pacific looked and
sounded like a keeper.