What a pleasure to report that Dancap Productions is bringing back South Pacific, which brought a seriousness and power to the American musical stage rarely seen before its 1949 debut.
After becoming one of the best-selling cast albums ever, with classics such as “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Younger Than Springtime,” this story of love, loss and, yes, racism vanished from most stages until it was exquisitely resurrected at Lincoln Centre in New York in 2008.
It swept the Tonys that year, reminding the world of just how inspired Joshua Logan’s book was. And how Oscar Hammerstein II — so often an unimpressive lyricist to his partner Richard Rodgers’s hummable tunes — could write lines that cut to the heart of the American experience.
This nearly flawless production, directed by Bartlett Sher, ran at the Four Seasons last summer and will sing and dance again at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.
South Pacific runs Feb. 15 to April 10 (dancaptickets.com).