SOUTH PACIFIC Musical at Muny Theater Review

Taylor Louderman as Nellie Forbush in the Muny's SOUTH PACIFIC. Photo credit: Philip Hamer. Courtesy of the Muny

– By Cate Marquis –

The Muny’s “South Pacific” delivers an “enchanting evening” of musical entertainment, despite steamy weather. Fans of classical musicals will find a pitch-perfect show with strong voices, lively dances and a well-staged show that takes full advantage of the Muny’s broad stage in this new production of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.. Tony-winner Paulo Szot and Tony-nominated Taylor Louderman lead the cast as the couple at the center of this story set in World War II in the South Pacific, where an American nurse from Arkansas meets a widowed Frenchman who owns a large, prosperous plantation. Their story takes place during the war on a small Pacific island being used by the U.S. Navy as a base, for supplies and staging, far from the active fighting. It is near Thanksgiving and the base is organizing an entertainment show for the rather bored seamen and nurses stationed in this backwater of the war.

Actually, this South Pacific is as near-perfect a production of this show as you can get, from the casting, the singing, the dancing, to the sets and backdrops, and full use of the big stage for multiple scene changes. This is the kind of thing that the Muny does best, and for which it was recently honored with a Tony for Best Regional Theater.

The musical opens with two Polynesian children, Jerome (Josiah Paik) and Ngana (Grace Moore), singing a children’s song “Dites-Moi” in French, on a dock on the plantation belonging to Emile de Becques (Paulo Szot). The children scamper off, and soon Emile de Becques and American nurse, Ensign Nellie Forbush (Taylor Louderman) stroll out onto the dock. The pair met at an officers’ dance a short time back but seem to be falling in love already.

This opening act features Paulo Szot as Emile singing one of the show’s most famous tunes, “Some Enchanted Evening,” a showcase for Szot’s booming, operatic quality voice. Paulo Szot is so good, his singing is worth the ticket price on its own. The Brazilian Szot made the most of his St Louis visit by also appearing in a show at Opera Theater of St. Louis and giving a one-day concert at another venue.

Taylor Louderman is equally outstanding as Nellie Forbush, singing her songs with a fine, strong voice as well as lively charm and humor, her opening number “A Cockeyed Optimist.” Louderman’s Nellie is actually the main character in this story, and Louderman carries off that heavy load with perfect style and seeming effortlessness. It is hard to imagine better casting for these two roles

Besides these two, the show sports a colorful cast of characters and a second love story, along with whole bunch of songs. On another part of the island, we meet some of the sailors, seabees and Marines stationed on the island, along with the colorful Tonkinese merchant known as Bloody Mary (a very lively, funny Joan Almedilla), who spouts a bunch of colorful language picked up from sailors as she brags about how good her English is becoming, after having her praises sung by the sailors, seabees and Marines in “Bloody Mary.” We also meet the sailors’ wheeler dealer Luther Billis (a very funny and acrobatic Bobby Conte), an entrepreneurial fellow who is always busy with his side businesses such as a camp laundry or making grass skirts for Bloody Mary to sell along with her trinkets and souvenirs, like shrunken heads.

Luther Billis is dying to get the the nearby but forbidden island of Bali Ha’i, where Mary gets some of her supplies and where it is rumored that the plantation owners have hidden their daughters from the American crew, prompting him and the other seamen to sing “There Is Nothing Like a Dame.” Bloody Mary sings the praises of the little forbidden island to newly arrived Marine Lt. Joe Cable (Michael Canu), one of the few who have seen action in the war,

Other cast members include Mary’s daughter Liat (Michaela Marfori), Billis’ buddies Stewpot (Robert Crenshaw) and Professor (John El-Jor), the base’s commanding officers Commander Harbison (Jeff Cummings) and Captain Brackett (Michael James Reed).

This Rodgers and Hammerstein favorite musical debuted shortly after the end of World War II, and the story resonated strongly with people at the time. Unlike many musicals of the late 1940s and 1950s era, which usually focused only on a love story, “South Pacific’s” story has aged better because it deals with something deeper, particularly prejudices, which are explored through the musical’s double love stories.

However, the Rodgers and Hammerstein score remains classically of its time period, with upbeat, bouncy late ’40s tunes and plentiful ballads. Besides the tunes already mentioned, the musical is full of other famous songs loved by fans of musicals, such as “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and “Bali Ha’i,” that one sung with charm by Joan Almedilla’s Bloody Mary, and her other solo, “Happy Talk.” This classic musical has more ballads than more modern ones, and include Nellie’s “I’m In Love with a Wonderful Guy” and Lt. Cable’s “Younger Than Springtime,” sung beautifully by Louderman and Canu, respectively.

The choreography, by Karla Puno Garcia, is one of the shows highlights, and makes full use of the Muny’s big stage. Costumes are great and the sets are impressive, with a fine mix of movable flats, projections on screens, and built pieces create the perfect mood, with sunsets, beaches, thatched huts and bunkers. One particularly nice bit of stagecraft has Nellie riding across stage in a “jeep” behind the “dock’ where Emile is left standing.

Visually marvelous, well-sung and well-staged, with nice direction by William Carlos Angulo, the Muny’s “South Pacific” is a classic done right.

“South Pacific” is on the Muny stage in Forest Park through July 12, 2026.

© Cate Marquis