He figures in “The Cave,” one of the most dramatic stories in the collection, about a group of soldiers stationed on a small island, who are trying to keep the Japanese from retaking Guadalcanal. There is Tony Fry, a swashbuckling American officer with a penchant for acting outside the regular chain of command. Michener summons up a gallery of other compelling characters. Bloody Mary’s response as Cable heads off to duty in “Operation Alligator,” a major assault on a Japanese-held island, is unsparing, “Lieutenant one bullshit goddam fool!” But despite his deep love for the girl, he knows he can never marry her or take her home to his family in Philadelphia. With Mary playing an uncomfortable combination of matchmaker and procurer, Cable is drawn again and again to the mystic island. Making the acquaintance of handsome, young Lieutenant Joe Cable, she spirits him to the nearby island of Bali-ha’i, where the French planters have sequestered their daughters for the war, and where he promptly falls for Mary’s own lovely daughter, Liat. slang-who features prominently in “Fo’ Dolla,” the longest story in the book. Indeed, it is just such a woman, “Bloody Mary”-a wily, betel-nut-chewing entrepreneur and master of pidgin G.I. Telling about the old Tonkinese woman who used to sell human heads. What the steaming Hebrides were like and first thing you know I’m Talk about the South Pacific, people intervene. Jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. I wish I could tell you about the sweating Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ![]() ![]() The infinite specks ofĬoral we called islands. But Oscar Hammerstein would somehow have to distill it all into a coherent libretto that could hold an audience for two and a half hours. Michener’s wartime service in the Pacific had left him with a notebook full of vivid impressions and memorable characters. ![]() The New York Times had pronounced it “truly one of the most remarkable books” to come out of World War II, and its appeal lay in its granularity-in its depiction of American types interacting with South Sea Island originals-more than in its inherent drama. Tales of the South Pacific was a neither-fish-nor-fowl creation-not a standard novel with a beginning, middle, and end, but rather an accumulation of atmospheric character sketches. What they had in front of them now was Michener’s first book. “They could make a great musical out of three pages of the Bronx telephone directory.” Rodgers and Hammerstein, the most successful songwriting team on Broadway, were angry because they’d just had their first flop, Allegro. ![]() “Those fellows are so mad,” James Michener would remember thinking about Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. With a sensational cast of over thirty and a full orchestra, this ravishing musical is set to be the must-see theatrical event of the year.īoasting one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most memorable scores, and this much-loved Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical features songs such as ‘ Some Enchanted Evening', ‘ I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair' and ‘ Bali Ha’i‘.Mary Martin (center, in blue shorts) and cast members in 1949. When young Princeton graduate Lieutenant Joe Cable is flown in on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, love and fear become entwined as the island’s battle for hearts and minds begins. The scheming sailor Luther Billis runs a makeshift laundry to earn a quick buck, but he’s no match for the quick-witted Polynesian Bloody Mary who’s intent on exploiting these foreigners. Nellie Forbush, a navy nurse from Arkansas, finds herself falling for the French plantation owner, Emile de Becque – a man with a mysterious past. On an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, US troops are kicking their heels amid the cacao groves while restlessly waiting for the war to reach them. This powerful love story, set on a South Pacific island during World War ll, is brought thrillingly to life in an epic new five-star production directed by Chichester Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director.ġ943.
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