"SOUTH PACIFIC," by the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre," through Aug. 4; running time: 2 hours, 54 minutes (including 20-minute intermission); for ticket purchase and more information, visit http//ufomt.org/
LOGAN — The first time I saw any rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” I was about 12 years old. I sat down and watched the 1958 film version, found among a stack of VHS tapes from my grandpa. I almost made it to the end of act one before turning it off.
I have to blame the fact that I was at an age where love, kissing and all that other mushy stuff were still pretty gross to me, and anyone who’s seen “South Pacific” knows that there’s an awful lot it in the musical.
With that said, the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre’s performance of “South Pacific” shattered all of my misconceptions rooted in a 12-year-old entertainment choices.
As the title indicates, the story of the musical is set in the South Pacific during World War II. It’s a classic love-and-war story, following armed forces and nurse ensigns on an island in the Coral Sea as they wait to be called into action.
I was immediately taken in at the beginning by the overture. The large live orchestra, lead by Barbara Day Turner, was well suited for the swing-era music. Smaller orchestras just wouldn’t do Rodgers and Hammerstein’s scores the justice that this orchestra did.
UFOMT’s performance captured the passion and deep-rooted issues of racism of the time period very well. It successfully maintained a careful balance of these serious themes with comical dialogue and lyrics.
Performances throughout were consistent with the quality I’ve seen in all of the festival performances. In all honesty, though, I struggled to find the relationship between the lead characters of Molly Mustonen’s Nellie Forbush and Branch Fields’ Emile De Becque believable — at first. It’s no doubt that Mustonen was convincing as the doe-eyed girl from Little Rock, and Fields’ bellowing bass voice fit the suave Frenchman character perfectly. But the musical opens a few weeks after they have met, and I was hoping to see more of an immediate connection. The chemistry between the two gradually improved. Their voices, both rich in tone, were an excellent match for their duets, especially in “Some Enchanted Evening.”
Mark Womack, in his sixth season with the festival, made a smooth transition from opera to Broadway as the gung-ho Lt. Joseph Cable. He performed wonderfully as a young man intensely in love with an island girl and gave a particularly thought-provoking performance of the song “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught.” Stephanos Tsirakoglou, who also starred in “Don Giovanni” with Womack, was entertaining once again as Luther Billis. Jeanette Blakeney was hilarious as the loud and rambunctious Bloody Mary.
The ensemble cast of men and women put on delightful displays of the classic hits “Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and “There is Nothing Like a Dame.” The upbeat tunes had the audience chuckling and sometimes clapping along.
I don’t mean to knock the movie or say that this performance put it entirely to shame, but I would certainly advise seeing “South Pacific” at the Ellen Eccles Theatre. The energy of the entire live performance was fantastic, so much so that I gained a better respect for the story. I’ve had a taste of how magnificent Rodgers and Hammerstein can be live. I may just go home and dig out that VHS again. If it’s not enough for me, I suppose I’ll just have to make another trip to Logan.
Email: hbowler@desnews.com