For the week of May 8 - 14, 2002

Theater students present one enchanted evening

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

One of the most beloved of the big splashy, location primed musicals is Josh Logan, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s "South Pacific."

Adam Bohrer and Molly Keenan star in the Wood River High School production of "South Pacific." Photo by Magic Photography and Video

Presented May 8 though 11 by the Wood River High School drama department students, the musical is directed by Rebecca Miller.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

"South Pacific" was an immediate hit on Broadway in 1949, and a successful film version followed in 1958. Adapted from James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning "Tales of the South Pacific," it combines idealistic romance with the realities of a world at war.

Because of its strong messages about prejudice, bravery, lust and innocence it became only the second musical to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

On a small South Pacific island, U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, played here by Erika Freestone, becomes enchanted with a mysterious Frenchman, Emile de Becque, played by Manny Santiago. His sensual life-style is vastly opposed to her own conservative Arkansas background.

Meanwhile, Lt. Joe Cable—Adam Bohrer—is befriended by a native woman, Bloody Mary—Jamie King—who engineers a love affair for him with her beautiful young daughter, Liat, played by Molly Keenan. While the love affairs rage and possibly break apart, Cable and Emile de Becque team up for a top-secret spy mission undertaken against the Japanese fleet from behind enemy lines, which places the two men in danger.

For comic relief, there is Billis, a completely outrageous enlisted man played by John Dykstra, a cadre of his fellow sailors, native women and starchy nurses.

Memorable tunes such as "I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right out of My Hair," "There is Nothing Like a Dame," "Bali Ha’i" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are interspersed with the good natured fun, nail biting war heroics and passionate romances.

Tickets for the play are available at Chapter One in Ketchum and Read All about It in Hailey.

 

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