| South Pacific: Florida Tour. |
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| Written by Martin D Goodkin |
| Wednesday, 11 April 2012 22:31 |
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 In the State of Florida, with the Trayvon Martin case being so prominent, a song written 63 years ago, "You've Got To Be Caught", is as powerful today as then andjust as moving is the touring company revival of "South Pacific" at the Broward Performing Arts Center .
Without the razzle dazzle of today's Broadway shows a musical written in 1949 has a book, and certainly a score, that has become a classic . At the core of the show are two love stories that reflect what is very much alive today, including a war being fought by young men and women.
The book of the musical "South Pacific" was written by Oscar Hammerstein and Joshua Logan based on the Pulitzer Prize winning short stories in "Tales of the South Pacific" by James A. Michener with Hammerstein also writing the lyrics while his partner Richard Rodgers wrote the music.
 Starring as Nellie Forbush, the Navy nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, is Jennie Sophia who was the understudy until a little over a month ago when she was give the role . She brings across the "Cockeyed Optimist" that she sings about, shares the joy of "Washing That Man Right Out of Her Hair" along with letting you know that she is in love with "A Wonderful Guy" while at the same time holds the audience's attention as she stands alone on stage singing a reprise of "Some Enchanted Evening". While Jennie Sophia is sure of herself as a singer of these enduring songs, puts across the naive girl from the sticks, handles the comic moments as well as the dramatic scenes she doesn't seem completely comfortable in the little choreography she has to do.
Marcelo Guzzo plays Emile de Becque, the Frenchman who escaped to the island after killing a man for being a bully and had two children with a Polynesian woman which brings a complication to his romance with Nellie. Guzzo has a full baritone that certainly does justice to "Some Enchanted Evening" and brings a lump to the throat singing "This Nearly Was Mine". While you could hear and understand every word he was singing the same couldn't be said when he was talking. Sadly there was very little chemistry between the co-stars.
 Shane Donovan, as Lt. Joseph Cable, delivers "Younger Than Springtime" to every woman in the audience and a burning "You've Got To Be Taught" to anyone who has an ounce of hate in his heart. Tall, muscular and handsome, also having a vulnerability, Donovan makes Liat, played by Hsin-Yu Liao, seem even more delicate than she appears. When she and her mother, Bloody Mary, sing "Happy Talk" it is an enchantment all its own. Cathy Foy-Mahi, as Mary, gets all the humor of the character at the beginning and when she turns on a dime to sell her daughter to Cable you see a woman fighting for her daughter's life.
 
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 April 2012 22:32 |