Five Important Stories About South Pacific You Didn’t Know…
1. Rodgers, Hammerstein and Logan worked on South Pacific for just over a year before it opened. Also, it was the first work that RnH wrote and produced.
On February 19th, 1948, the New York Times announced that Rodgers and Hammerstein would be working on their next musical based on James A. Michener’s book “Tales of the South Pacific”. In the article it states:
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who theatrical output since 1943 when they wrote “Oklahoma!” has reached the local boards under the ‘banner of the Theatre Guild’ announced yesterday that they will put on one of their own shows next season in association with Leland Hayward and Joshua Logan. Asked last night where this new development indicated a break between the Guild and the highly successful musical comedy team, Mr. Rogers declared emphatically that it boded no such thing.
Mr. Rodgers explained that the Messrs. Hayward and Logan “found this piece of property and brought it to us” as did the Guild in the case of “Oklahoma!” and “Carousel”. If the Guild can come up with an equally interesting subject, Mr. Rodgers said, he and Mr. Hammerstein will work with the organization as on past occasions. “The Guild is very friendly with us and knew all about it,” he added.
JOSHUA LOGAN TO DIRECT
The contemplated project is a musical play based on “Tales of the South Pacific” a novel by James A. Michener. Mr. Rodgers will compose the music and Mr. Hammerstein will write the book and lyrics. The production to be directed by Mr. Logan is scheduled to be presented around Christmas time. Mr. Michener’s book is a collection of stories dealing with the life of our soldiers, sailors, marines, and seabees in the islands of the South Pacific during the second World War.
While the Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein have never produced any of their own products, they have successfully sponsored other ventures such as “Annie Get Your Gun”, “Happy Birthday”, and “John Loves Mary”. Their production schedule also includes the Irving Berlin-Norman Krasna musical, “Stars on My Shoulders”. Early this week, incidentally, Mr. Logan was telling this department that following the debut of his highly touted “Mister Roberts” (the opening took place last night at the Alvin) he would be without any theatrical plans. Apparently, Mr. Logan must have had a sudden change of mind.
“The show got an extra catapult of attention when only a few months later, Michener received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. “It was unusual for the Pulitzer committee to give an award to a series of short stores — or to a book that was not set in America, for that matter — but apparently the freshness of the book’s approach carried the day. Michener was quoted as saying,
“No one could have been more surprised than I…Nor could anyone have been more pleased, for if I held no great brief for the stories as art, I was indelibly convinced that they could never be challenged as a truthful and sometimes probing analysis of men lost in a strange world.
Rodgers and Hammerstein were more succinct; they cabled Michener from Los Angeles:
CONGRATULATIONS AND SALUTES TO YOU AND HOORAY FOR OUR JUDGEMENT EXCLAMATION POINT”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 110
“As 1948 drew to an exhausted close, the show had finally come together — the cast was nearly set, the script and score was finished, the contracts were drawn up — and it was time to rest up for the rehearsals which would being in February of the coming year. One last thing: the title of Michener’s book had been officially shortened to South Pacific because as Rodgers said, “People were making dirty puns on the word "Tales" and it was beginning to get tiresome.”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 117
There was 59 days between starting rehearsal, previews and opening the show. In that time they had four weeks of rehearsals in New York City where there were “no ego clashes, no car wrecks”, and then a week of tryout performances at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, and then two weeks at the Shubert in Boston.
South Pacific opened on Broadway on April 7th, 1949. Only 413 days since announcing the project.
In 2020, the average time for the development of a new musical from beginning to Broadway is seven-ish years. Think of the difference… in 1949, Rodgers & Hammerstein could have an idea, get the rights to a story/script, create the whole show (without never-ending workshops, concerts, demos, etc…), cast it and then produce it within a single year. That is a huge amount of work, but they had access to the best collaborators, stars (Mary Martin), and the money to do it.
And because of all of that, the story was incredibly relevant to what was happening — people were still living the effects of World War II, and South Pacific gave them a way to emotionally process what they had all, collectively as a nation, went through.
2. Joshua Logan, director, wrote the book to South Pacific with Hammerstein and then was screwed out of the “author’s royalties”
“Josh, I know absolutely nothing about army behavior or how a sergeant talks to a general and vice versa,” admitted Hammerstein to Logan when he called him on the phone. Hammerstein had never been in the military, never been comfortable with its authority, and was completely stumped as to how to write a show with so much serious military material.”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 115
After working on the show for months together, Josh Logan, book writer and director of South Pacific, had to confront Rodgers and Hammerstein to ask for a “credit” on the show. Hammerstein responded:
“I wish I’d said it first. I’m sorry you had to. Of course you must have credit. You wrote it as much as I did.”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 116
After that discussion, the lawyers were involved, but Logan was not treated as an equitable partner. “Logan would get credit with Hammerstein as coauthor of the book, but the size of their billing would be 60% of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s billing for music and lyrics. What was more, Logan would not share in the copyright and would not participate in any of the author’s royalties.” (pg. 117)
“Logan believed so much in the project that he accepted the terms, although the inequity would gnaw at him for the rest of his life.”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 117
3. Dorothy Rogers (Richard Roger’s wife) drummed up volunteers for Blood Drives on the stage of the Majestic Theatre
During the run of South Pacific, several blood drives were held in the lobby of the Majestic, and hundreds of theatrical professionals donated blood to the Red Cross for the war effort. Richard Rodgers’ wife, Dorothy, was involved in drumming up volunteers.
The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 3 - Jennifer Ashley Tepper, pg. 189
Read the New York Times article below:
4. South Pacific transferred from the Majestic Theatre to the Broadway Theatre in 1953
In a New York Supreme Court’s worker compensation claim, we learn that South Pacific closed at the Majestic Theater and reopened after a “road tour”, 6-8 weeks later at the Broadway Theatre. It opened at the Broadway Theatre on June 29th, 1953 after playing New Haven and Boston from April - June 1953. (The same two towns that South Pacific had it’s out-of-town tryout in 1949.)
At that time, the Shuberts (owners of the Majestic Theatre), and Rodgers and Hammerstein (producers [and writers] of the show), apparently coincided in the view that South Pacific was beginning to “waste its fragrance on the desert air”, and that such reduction in profit might be reversed, if the production were removed to a different theatre. The Broadway Theatre (also within the control of the Shubert family of corporations), was agreed upon as a suitable showcase for the show.
New York Supreme Court Document, pg. 582
Rodgers and Hammerstein truly loved playing their shows at the Majestic… In fact, Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted the Majestic for Me and Juliet so badly, that they kicked out their own show, South Pacific. It moved to the Broadway, but due to scheduling, had to play five weeks in Boston in between!
The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 3 - Jennifer Ashley Tepper, pg. 189
5. Hal Prince met Stephen Sondheim at opening night of South Pacific
I inherited even more from the opening night of South Pacific at the same theater [Majestic Theater] two years later because there, everything worked. Seeing that show affected my career big time. That night, Steve [Sondheim] was there with the Hammersteins, and I was with the Rodgers: Mary and her parents. Mary said, “Steve, this is Hal. Hal, this is Steve.” Not so long after, I got drafted into the Korean War, and when I came back, Steve and I became very close friends.
The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 3 - Jennifer Ashley Tepper, pg. 189
