Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical based on James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific was an immediate success. Celebrating its seventieth anniversary, along with seventeen Tony Awards, and one Pulitzer prize, South Pacificremains musically enthralling, emotionally gripping, and culturally relevant. The plot pulls characters and storylines from Michener’s Tales to weave a narrative about stifling gender roles, deeply ingrained racial prejudice, and the lengths to which a person will go for love—whether love of another person, love of country, or love of money.

Nellie Forbush, an army nurse from Arkansas, is stationed on an island in Melanesia during World War II. She is an optimist to the point of naïveté, believing that the Allies will win the war and she will live happily ever after with a wealthy French expatriate, Emile deBecque, with whom she has fallen in love. Emile has mixed race children with his late wife, a Polynesian woman, but Nellie was raised in a part of the world and at a time where dark skin is something to be disdained. Meanwhile, young Lieutenant Cable meets the foul-mouthed islander Bloody Mary, the only woman on the island who is not a commissioned officer. She introduces him to her daughter, Liat, and the two young people immediately fall in love. However, Cable is frustrated that he cannot love this Tonkinese girl enough to overcome his prejudice, which has been “carefully taught” to American children. The common thread between these poignant stories is Luther Billis, an American Seabee whose desire for money and women provides some welcome comedic relief.

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
Based on Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener