With Chichester Festival Theatre promising ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ at famous, if now rarely-seen, Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific, this bulky production thinks it pays off for the musical’s flaws in story and characters. Still, I doubt I was the only one less than convinced. I wasn’t wowed by the goings-on, nor a story which staggers, and I didn’t expect many nuances concerning race, even with one of the lead characters being openly racist.
The songs are of course a delight – the real reason to come and spend this evening in the tropics – with I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair and Bali Ha’i standing out as the real treats. John Laird and his band have a great time in the pit: the lively score never really feels ‘exotic’ as the story wants us to believe, yet as a musical, it features some fine tunes.
I expected a bit more dancing, though Sera Maehara as Liat demonstrated fluid, sensual movement – a lone figure on stage on an island of her own. Her time with chipper Lieutenant Joseph Cable (Rob Houchen, striving to make the character work) is brief, and there is little to establish romance between the two. Cable catches malaria in the space of the interval and is killed offstage, during the underwhelming Japanese advancement in the islands around them.
With a questionable French accent, Julian Ovenden is Emile de Becque, on the run for murder but living his best life in paradise. With a sweet voice, he might ram the high notes a little too far and keeping the accent at the same time only adds to the absurdity. Gina Beck is delightful as Emile’s potential love interest Nellie Forbush, though some substance is missing. Nellie’s southern hospitality is mirrored with deeply rooted racism (concerning Emile’s children with a previous partner) – something never truly explored, rather an excuse for the couple to face a storm of their own.
Bloody Mary is the girl for us and Joanna Ampil brings grit to the role: never won over by the American sailors, holding her own in life, her take on Happy Talk and her consistently funny onstage presence were fine features here. Douggie McMeekin as Luther Billis added a comical sense of New York to the show, the sluggish sailor with a heart of gold. The revolving set often complicates the space, the tin-roof coverings the only sight for most of the night.
Where South Pacific most disappointed for me was the lack of depth for quite a serious subject matter: a feeling of the ornamental loomed large. The love complications in both couples’ affairs were never interesting, Nellie facing her bigotry without any real reason why other than love. We can expect some problematic jokes and lines about women, the native islanders and effeminate men. Nothing really feels earned here, and the end is a mess. See for the nostalgia.
South Pacific, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Tue 11 Oct.
South Pacific is on until Sat 15 Oct. Tickets: £18.50-£74.50. Info: here
words JAMES ELLIS