Music by
Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein 11.
Director: by
Janet Tweedie. Musical Director: Jenna Hinton
Choreographer:
Belinda Hassall. Set Designer: Roger Timewell
Costume
Designer: Janetta McRae. Lighting Designer: Hamish McConchie
Presented by
Queanbeyan Players.
The
Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre 2nd to 11th June 2017.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
As the
houselights dimmed and the first notes of the overture to “South Pacific”
struck up, you could almost hear the sighs of happiness from the audience. It
was easy to understand why. This is one of the most glorious scores that
Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote, and it is well served by Jenna Hinton’s
excellent orchestra.
Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s musical, set on a South Pacific island during World War 11, still
carries a punch with its frank exploration of race and miscegenation, not the
least when the show’s likeable heroine, naval nurse Nellie Forbush, is appalled
when she discovers that the French plantation owner, with whom she has fallen
in love, is the father of mixed-race children. Then there is the brave
Lieutenant Cable, who wastes no time deflowering the young island girl, Liat,
pimped to him by her mother, Bloody Mary, then brutally dumps her, albeit with
considerable anguish.
For her
second production for Queanbeyan Players, her first being “My Fair Lady” in
2015, director Janet Tweedie has combined adventurous casting, an uncluttered
attractive setting and good lighting design with imaginative use of stage
spaces and inventive scene changes, to bring freshness to the staging of the
storyline. However, awkward choreography for the production numbers, and a
tendency for the cast to drop into straight lines, tends to reduce some of the
effectiveness.
 |
| Michael Moore (Emile de Becque) - Ellen Scott ( Nellie Forbush) Photo: Janelle McMenamin |
Michael
Moore brings charm, authority and an appropriate sense of Gallic melancholy to
the plantation owner, Emile de Becque. His singing of “Some Enchanted Evening”
and “This Nearly Was Mine” provide the vocal highlights of the evening. Ellen
Scott is a delightfully engaging Nellie and Anthony Simeonovic impresses as the
stitched-up Lieutenant Cable finding the right mix of venom and confusion in
“Carefully Taught”. Andrew McMillan offers a fine comic performance as Seabee
Luther Billis, while Joseph McGrail-Bateup brings the necessary gravitas and
humanity to the role of Capt. George Bracket.
Cast against
type, Tina Robinson manages some laughs as the devious Bloody Mary, but lacks
presence when deprived of lines, and her ill-advised jazz inflections in “Bali Hai”
and “Happy Talk” reduces the dramatic potential of both songs.
But the real
attraction of “South Pacific” is its glorious score. Don’t let the frosty
Canberra nights put you off this opportunity to hear it beautifully performed
by an enthusiastic cast and superb orchestra in Queanbeyan Players latest
production.
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 3rd June 2017
