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It has been the case for some years now that Broadway and West End revivals of celebrated musicals rarely feature the exact original text, precisely that which the authors wrote and wanted heard on opening night of the first production. I suppose one or two revivals have stuck closely to the original script (Carol Channing's 1995 Hello, Dolly! comes to mind). But just about all the others have made changes, from dropping a song, a reprise, or an overture, to shifting scenes and songs around, adding material from film versions, or extensively overhauling the libretto (Damn Yankees, Cabaret, Follies).
Those involved may attempt to downplay the changes, but if one possesses the published (and often conveniently out-of-print) versions of the original texts, the alterations become obvious. Are we ever to see and hear these shows again as they were first heard? I bring all of this up in honor of the release of First Night Records' cast recording of the Royal National Theatre revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, directed by Trevor Nunn, which opened at the Olivier Theatre last December and will conclude its run there in two weeks, without a West End transfer like those accorded the RNT's Carousel, Oklahoma!, and My Fair Lady.
This South Pacific featured a considerable revision of both book and score, with the CD documenting the latter. In place of the original overture is a new prelude including the melody of 'Now Is the Time', a song cut from the original (the tune has always been heard in the show as a march). Taking the example of the two film versions, the production places the original first scene about four scenes and a half hour later in the act. So the first three songs are now 'Bloody Mary', 'There Is Nothin' Like a Dame' and 'Bali Ha'i' with the opening songs of the original text ('Dites-Moi', 'A Cockeyed Optimist', 'Twin Soliloquies','Some Enchanted Evening') now following.
The original second act had four songs. In the RNT production, 'Happy Talk' and 'Honey Bun' are followed by 'My Girl Back Home' for Joe and Nellie, a song cut from the original, used in the first movie version, then filmed for but cut from the recent TV film (but available on the CD and DVD). Next comes the Joe-Emile scene, which originally included, back-to-back, 'Carefully Taught' and 'This Nearly Was Mine'. Here, 'Carefully Taught' segues into the 'I was cheated before...' section that has always led to 'This Nearly Was Mine', but with a different lyric. Then Joe and Emile share 'Now Is the Time', a restoration of the cut number. 'This Nearly Was Mine' is saved for a new scene (patterned after the films) set on Marie Louise Island, and sung by Emile alone.
Leaving aside questions about how Rodgers and Hammerstein would have felt about all this (Didn't they have a reason for opening the show with the protagonists, then moving out to the supporting characters? Would they have wanted those cut songs in a stage version?), let's move on to the new recording.
South Pacific has two soundtrack albums, two New York cast recordings (original Broadway with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza; Music Theatre of Lincoln Center with Florence Henderson and Giorgio Tozzi), and, in addition to highlights from the first London production (mostly without Martin, because of her preservation on the Broadway set), a 1988 London cast recording (also from First Night) starring Gemma Craven (currently in the London Taboo) as Nellie. But, as was the case with First Night's cast recording of the RNT/Nunn My Fair Lady, the alterations make the new 67-minute South Pacific disc one that demands to be heard.
In addition to preserving all the changes noted above, the new disc features several reprises, a new second-act opening, and, most unusually, three scenes featuring both dialogue and music: the end of the first act; the dramatic, late-second-act scene that includes Nellie's reprise of 'Some Enchanted Evening'; and the end of the show. Also present are some new orchestrations (William David Brohn), arrangements, and incidentals.
Australian Philip Quast received his third Best Musical Actor Olivier Award for this production; his previous ones were for the RNT Sunday in the Park with George and the Donmar Warehouse The Fix. Although he never got to record George, he can also be heard on cast recordings of The Fix and The Secret Garden, plus the symphonic and video concert versions of Les Misérables. Quast's Emile de Becque is warm, very attractive in tone, and quite different from those of Pinza and Tozzi (they were basses, while Quast is a high baritone and less operatic).
Lauren Kennedy has been seen on Broadway and/or national tour in Side Show and Sunset Boulevard, was leading lady of Signature Theatre's The Rhythm Club, and created (in the Chicago world premiere) the role now being played in New York by Sherie Rene Scott in The Last Five Years. Kennedy has a solid, smooth voice, and she's beltier than most Nellies. But her girlish, All-American take on the part lacks depth, and she's unconvincing in some of the included dialogue.
If Sheila Francisco's Bloody Mary doesn't quite rank with those of Juanita Hall (original Broadway), Muriel Smith (original London/ film soundtrack, dubbing for Hall) or Bertice Reading ('88 London), it's effective. Some have maintained that, in the role of Joe Cable, Edward Baker-Daly's physique is more impressive than his singing, but he sounds good on the recording.
You may wish to argue with the alterations and restorations, but it all makes for a South Pacific CD that you'll want to experience, one that's actually more interesting than the '88 London set. Which leaves one question: Now that Broadway in the last decade has had revivals of Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music, along with a stage State Fair and this fall's Flower Drum Song, doesn't Broadway need a new South Pacific?
I was unhappy to note in several reviews of the RNT production the feeling that the show is dated, and that Nunn's attempts at rethinking it were doomed by the material itself. I believe South Pacific can still be one of the most emotionally powerful pieces in the repertoire. The RNT production won't be coming in: Ben Brantley disliked it in his New York Times review, it wasn't a smash in London, and even the acclaimed RNT/Nunn Okahoma! got a disappointing New York reception.
There remains the current US national tour, although one can't quite imagine Robert Goulet as the next Broadway Emile de Becque. And of course the recent TV film gave the piece (in heavily revised form) wide exposure. Still, it would be surprising if South Pacific were to be the only one of the R&H “big five” left out of the Broadway revival cycle.
