Via Giphy.
Today the spotlight shines on April 3, 2008, when South Pacific was revived at the Vivian Beaumont.
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South Pacific has always been my favorite R&H score. I can't say it's just for the romantic songs, although "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger Than Springtime" are nothing to sneeze at. Hell, "Bali Ha'i" is also romantic in a sense, continuing the tradition of "something about the land" songs. Then, of course, there's the fun ones, like "There's Nothing Like a Dame" and "A Wonderful Guy," as seen above. I wish "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" had better music, but obviously, the lyrics are what's supposed to matter there.
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One of the first books I read as a theater fanatic was Martin Gottfried's Broadway Musicals. I remember Gottfried saying South Pacific's book was as dated as a war movie, the implication being that this would keep the show from ever being revived. To the best of my knowledge, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan's book to South Pacific wasn't doctored in 2008. Ben Brantley, New York Times, approved.
"This South Pacific recreates the unabashed, unquestioning romance that American theatergoers had with the American book musical in the mid-20th century, before the genre got all self-conscious about itself. There’s not an ounce of we-know-better-now irony in Mr. Sher’s staging. Yet the show feels too vital to be a museum piece, too sensually fluid to be square," Brantley wrote. "(Sher) puts his trust unconditionally in the original material. It’s as if a vintage photograph had been restored not with fuzzy, hand-colored prettiness but with you-are-there clarity."
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Winner of seven 2008 Tony Awards (for Sher, Paulo Szot as Emile, Best Revival of a Musical, and all four technical categories), the South Pacific revival ran for more than two years, or just under 1,000 performances. As of 2025, it's the longest-running Broadway revival of a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Once the audience found or rediscovered South Pacific, they never wanted to let it go.
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Also debuting on this day:
Say, Darling, which opened in 1958 at what was then the ANTA Playhouse. It's a play with music (by Jule Styne and Betty Comden & Adolph Green) based on Richard Bissell's roman à clef about the adaptation of 7 1/2 Cents into The Pajama Game. And as it happens, Kelli O'Hara was in a revival of Game before she did South Pacific! Back in 1958, Robert Morse's career kicked into gear thanks to Darling, where he may or may not have been playing Harold Prince.
I Ought to Be in Pictures, which opened in 1980 at the Eugene O'Neill. Dinah Manoff won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for this Neil Simon comedy-drama. Sixteen years ago, Herb (Ron Leibman) walked out on Libby (Dinah) and her mom to pursue a career as a Hollywood screenwriter. Joyce Van Patten costarred. Dinah got to reprise her role in Pictures' 1982 film adaptation, but Ron and Joyce were cast aside for movie stars Walter Matthau and Ann-Margret.
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Julius Caesar, which was revived in 2005 at the Belasco, and A Raisin in the Sun, which was revived in 2014 at the Ethel Barrymore. A twofer! Caesar is mentioned because it marked Denzel Washington's return to Broadway after more than 16 years. It also began his 20-years-and-counting of high profile Broadway revivals, even if to date, he's only won the Tony for one of them (2010's Fences).
Paradise Square, which opened in 2022 at the Ethel Barrymore. It was short-lived, but has a place in history thanks to Joaquina Kalukango's winning the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical.
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Next week, better late than never.
