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Article: Theatre: All this and World War Two SOUTH PACIFIC OLIVIER THEATRE LONDON
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- December 14, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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DID YOU know that South Pacific was an intimate musical? I guess
that makes two million of us. But in Trevor Nunn's low-key
production, the show is realistic and tender in a way that subdues
both its brassiness and its dogged, schematic plot. As the programme
excerpts from James Michener's stories show, he was no master of
prose or psychological subtlety, and Oscar Hammerstein and Joshua
Logan's book reflects this.
Two military Americans of different classes, sexes, and sides of
the Mason-Dixon line fall for inhabitants of the islands where they
are waiting to engage the Japanese. Lt Joe Cable is reluctant to
marry Liat, the Tonkinese girl with whom he's having an affair, and
Ensign Nellie ...