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Rockwell Matters

April 07, 2008

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Like most of the audience when I went to see Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of “South Pacific,” I am of a certain age: we’ll see if the show attracts a younger crowd later on. Like people all around me, I (my parents, in my case) had the LP when it first came out in 1949, and last week we sat there smiling and nodding and even weeping as the familiar songs came along. Although it’s been a staple in regional theaters, this was the first Broadway revival of this iconic musical in 59 years.
 
Overall, I enjoyed myself, but only that. The image of Americans as optimistic good guys has a sad resonance today. All that effortful cavorting by the supposedly horny seamen, all those politically correct appeals for racial tolerance (still timely, unfortunately, but dated in their earnestness). This was a conservatively faithful recreation of the show, overseen by the daughters of Richard Rodgers. The singers had to be miked on the sprawling Vivian Beaumont stage, I guess, though too loudly, but the original orchestrations were blessedly unamplified. And yet there was something stiff and dead about it all.
 
Mostly, I think, this was a question of the stars, or more precisely their star power. Kelli O’Hara has a really lovely soprano and really lovely phrasing; every time she opened her mouth I got teary. She may lack the last iota of spunk that Mary Martin brought to Nellie Forbush, but she was fully convincing on her own terms.
 
Not so Paulo Szot, the Brazilian baritone who took on the thankless task of portraying Emile de Becque and replicating Ezio Pinza. Pinza was older than the part demands, and a bass. Szot looks the right age – mid-40’s – and is a decent baritone. But he’s a little lounge-lizard sleazy and lacks romantic chemistry with his Nellie.
 
The larger trouble is, though, is that Martin and Pinza were two of the greatest stars of their age, and the juxtaposition of Broadway’s baby with a famous opera singer was piquant in itself. Who would have comparable star power today? Rene Pape as de Becque, maybe: if Pinza an Italian or Szot a Brazilian can be the French de Becque, then why not Pape the German; to Americans they’re all furinners. O’Hara is becoming a big deal on Broadway, but Broadway stars shine dimmer than they used to, compared with movie and television and pop-music luminaries.
 
For me, “South Pacific” isn’t quite up there with “Oklahoma!” or “Carousel” in the Rodgers and Hammerstein firmament. Still, this long overdue revival is worth going to, for its good intentions, its indelible tunes and O’Hara’s sweet-voiced Nellie.
 
— John Rockwell
 
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