South Pacific, the review

It has been a long wait for me to finally see South Pacific. Now that I have, I am satisfied. I was not super thrilled but I am glad I saw it. Many songs that I know of were rendered well by the actors. Their voices were strong and pleasant. It was nice to hear "Some Enchanted Evening", "There is nothin' like a dame", "I'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair", "A wonderful guy", "Younger than springtime" and "Happy Talk".

Katie Reid who played Nellie Forbush had a sweet voice. She had that innocent naive middle American look befitting the role. Marcelo Guzzo who played Emile de Becque did look French. He had a full deep tenor voice that would have been better in an opera but I am not complaining. Where I found fault in him was his English with a French accent. Sometimes it sounded more like English with a Spanish accent. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine Antonio Banderas speaking. Cathy Foy-Mahi looked very appropriate for the role of Bloody Mary. She had that polynesian look and her voice was lively. Her rendition of "Happy Talk" was what I imagined it to be. Luther Billis was played by Christian Marriner. He was funny and comical in a natural way. And Shane Donovan who played Lt. Joseph Cable was quite that handsome officer. It was totally believable that many girls in the show swooned at his presence. Although he could have been more muscular but his body was good and proportioned. Liat was played by a chinese actress Hsin-Yu Liao. She was somewhat passable as a polynesian girl. The two half polynesian half french kids were played by two black kids. It was kind of off putting cause I would have preferred to see Asian kids playing those roles. It would have been more believable. A mestizo Filipino kid would have looked better for those role. But I suppose it was hard to find kids of the right age with the singing and acting talent to play the roles so the production had to settle for black kids instead of hapa kids. Erick Cheski and Jake Bridges were both funny and likable as Stewpot and Professor, respectively.

Although many of the songs were memorable, I wished there were a group dance number in the show. The company sang quite well but there was no choreographed group number that I have always enjoyed watching. Nevertheless, many of the guys in the company were delicious looking and I can forgive the lack of a dance number. Fun show indeed and I repeat, I am glad I saw it. 3.5 stars out of 5.