|
At a time when some of our ostensible best minds opine that America "had it coming'', and an optimist, cockeyed or otherwise, is someone who hasn't heard the news, what price South Pacific? Was Trevor Nunn the overly optimistic one for reviving the 1949 musical about troops waiting to go into action against "the Japs''?
(...)
It helps that Philip Quast's Emile is not a tall, God-like figure but a dumpy, rumpled one, consumed with worry that the American nurse Nellie Forbush will not return his love. And that Nellie's constant cheer has a slightly nervous quality to it.
(...)
Nunn has reset Emile's great ballad 'This Nearly Was Mine' to the island where he is making secret radio transmissions to the post. It seems a bit odd for him to be holding forth when he's supposed to be hiding from the Japanese, but all one can say is, if they don't hear him, that's their loss. As it will be yours if you miss this.
© Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
