South Pacific - The Story
Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a mature French planter, Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his children was an island native and, unable to turn her back on the prejudices with which she was raised, refuses Emile's proposal of marriage. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl with whom he's fallen in love out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. When Emile is recruited to accompany Joe on a dangerous mission that claims Joe's life, Nellie realizes that life is too short not to seize her own chance for happiness, thus confronting and conquering her prejudices.
Production Photos of South Pacific
South Pacific on Broadway
Broadway Opening Night: April 7th, 1949 | Closing Night: January 16th, 1954 | Ran 1,925 performances on Broadway
“The clamor for South Pacific tickets went into overdrive as soon as the late editions hit the streets on the evening of April 7. Rarely in the history of Broadway had a pair of tickets been in such demand. Scalpers were getting up to $500 for a pair of orchestra seats that had been bought for $6.00 each.”
South Pacific Companion, pg. 149
$500 in 1949 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $5,443.30 in 2020!
“An advance sale of $500,000 quickly grew to $700,000 after the show opened. South Pacific had come in about $60,000 under its projected $225,000 budget, so the forty-eight original investors… not only got their first payout on opening night but stood to make back their entire investment by Labor Day, with the show’s operating profit of around $12,000 ($130,639.16 in 2020) a week.”
Something Wonderful, Todd S. Purdum, pg. 173-174
A letter from Hammerstein to Josh Logan, who had taken a month-long vacation after the opening:
“The news from here is better than good. The advance hovers somewhere between $400,000-$500,000. The audience hovers around the chandeliers throughout most of the performance and Pinza continues to hover over Mary Martin to everyone’s delight and perhaps his own private frustration.”
Reviews of South Pacific
“Magnificent...as lively, warm, fresh and beautiful as we had all hoped it would be.” – Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times
“Few Broadway musicals can match the songs of South Pacific for their beguiling tunes and meaningful lyrics. Whether addressing such varied subjects as love at first sight, race prejudice or lost possibilities, they speak a rare yet simple language.” – Los Angeles Times, January 01, 1949
“This is the ultimate modern blending of music and popular theatre to date, with the finest kind of balance between story and song, and hilarity and heartbreak.” – William Hawkins, New York World-Telegram, January 01, 1949
Read: Five Important Stories About South Pacific You Didn’t Know…
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South Pacific - The Film
South Pacific is a 1958 American romantic musical film based on the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which in turn is loosely based on James A. Michener's 1947 short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific. The film, directed by Joshua Logan, stars Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr and Ray Walston in the leading roles with Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary, the part that she had played in the original stage production. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Academy Award for Best Sound for Fred Hynes.