![]() Rodgers and Hammerstein use the different backgrounds of the characters as a way of promoting racial tolerance. For the film, the authors included one number, "My Girl Back Home," they had cut from the stage production.South Pacific is also considered radical in its exposure of racial issues on the American stage… the legend of Rodgers and Hammerstein's use of the Broadway theatre to make a courageous statement against racial bigotry is the very foundation on which the work is considered a classic. (They had done the same with Oklahoma in 1955.) In 1958, the film version of South Pacific earned the Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for Best Color Cinematography and Best Original Score. Rodgers and Hammerstein used their own money and created their own production company for the 1958 movie adaptation of South Pacific. The show yielded a string of hits, including, "Bali Ha'i," "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair," "Happy Talk," "This Nearly Was Mine," and "Some Enchanted Evening." ![]() In the case of South Pacific, Joshua Logan was partly responsible for this unity of music and drama-he asked the composer and librettist at least twice to rewrite "Younger than Springtime" until he felt it achieved its proper effect. With each new work, Rodgers and Hammerstein achieved a greater integration of music and text. During "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught," Joe Cable and Emile de Becque note that prejudice is not an inborn trait, but an attitude imparted to people throughout their lives: "You've got to be taught to hate and fear. Ironically, the aspect of the story that speaks to us most strongly today is the one that contemporary critics suggested should be eliminated: the topic of ethnic prejudice. Myriad characterizations and situations provided ample opportunity for contemporary Americans to identify with South Pacific, especially at a time when, having survived the war, people were deciding where to go with their lives, both as individuals and as a nation. Liat is young, inexperienced and being swept along by forces she does not understand. and believes he is prepared to cross ethnic boundaries when it comes to marriage. Lieutenant Joe Cable, an American G.I., is from the East Coast of the U.S. military, is trying to escape her life as a native islander. Bloody Mary, prompted by the examples of those in the U.S. Nellie Forbush also finds herself in a distant land but longs for the familiarity of Little Rock, Arkansas. Emile de Becque has traveled to a distant paradise in an attempt to leave his past behind him. South Pacific features characters to whom many Americans could relate in the period just after the Second World War. Rodgers, Hammerstein and director Joshua Logan found the source material for South Pacific in James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, a collection of stories about people living in the midst of a war raging far from their home towns. It went on to be one of the era's longest running musicals, second only to Oklahoma! The show was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1950, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and nine Tony Awards. ![]() South Pacific received more accolades during its time than either of its extremely successful predecessors.Īfter its premiere on Broadway on April 7, 1949, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, South Pacific became an incredible success. They were determined to make their next stage work a hit, and they succeeded. However, their third show, Allegro, was a dismal failure and threatened to make Rodgers and Hammerstein look as though they had simply gotten lucky with their earlier musicals. South Pacific was the fourth show penned by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, whose first two efforts, Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), had taken the world by storm.
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