South Pacific – Chichester Festival Theatre

Julian Ovenden and Gina Beck in South Pacific at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Picture: Johan Persson 

South Pacific continues at the Chichester Festival Theatre until 5 September 2021.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Forgive me if I get emotional but South Pacific was the show that gave birth to a lifelong passion for musical theatre 68 years ago when, as an 11-year-old, I was taken to Drury Lane to see this magical Rodgers and Hammerstein classic.

It was my first time in a theatre of any sort and what a treat it was. To this day I can still see in my mind Muriel Smith as the fiery Bloody Mary belting out ‘Bali H’ai’. And did you know that in smaller parts were the subsequently famous Larry ‘JR’ Hagman, June Whitfield and, the very last name on the cast list, a young Sean Connery?

Those evergreens ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’ and ‘I’m In Love With a Wonderful Guy’, both thrillingly delivered in Chichester by Gina Beck, stay with you forever. As does the big ensemble number ‘There is Nothing Like a Dame’ a riot of colour and hot choreography (take a bow, Ann Yee).

Why stop there? There’s ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘Younger Than Springtime’, ‘A Cockeyed Optimist’ and ‘This Nearly Was Mine’, the last-named so heartbreakingly performed by Julian Ovenden at Chichester that the reception almost took the roof off. Was there ever a better score?

I saw it in 1953 with Mary Martin as Ensign Nellie Forbush and Wilbur Evans as the widowed plantation owner Emile de Becque who falls in love with her and fears he’s lost her when Nellie bridles at the realisation his late wife was “coloured”. For a girl from Little Rock where black and white didn’t mix, it must have come as a culture shock.

Of course, when you’re 11, the show’s politics and strong message about racism pass you by. It was one of the lesser-known numbers, the at-the-time highly controversial ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’, that really hit home.

“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid/of people whose eyes are oddly made/and people whose skin is a different shade/You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late/before you are 6, 7 or 8/to hate all the people your relatives hate.” Wow, no wonder there was pressure to have such an “inappropriate” song removed.

Thankfully, the composers refused to budge but, boy, how those words resonate today with all the nonsense we still have to endure. Does it mean we should excuse the yobs abusing the three black footballers who missed a penalty because it’s not their fault, blame the parents? Surely not.

The first thing to be said about this Chichester revival, the first time as a grown-up that I’ve seen South Pacific by a professional cast (apart from the 1958 movie starring the divine Mitzi Gaynor and a dubbed Rossano Brazzi), is that the singing is absolutely glorious.

Not least by Rob Houchen, one of the finest voices around, as Lieutenant Joe Cable, who has an inevitably-doomed romance of his own with local Tonkinese girl Liat (Sera Maehara). His ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’ with Ovenden is beyond perfect.

The rich purity of Ovenden’s singing brings great depth to the middle-aged Emile, desperate to find a partner to join him and his incredibly cute children.

Under Daniel Evans’ contemporary and imaginative direction making full use of the revolving stage, this is a no-expense-spared South Pacific with a cast of 31 and a 15-strong orchestra under musical supervisor Nigel Lilley and MD Cat Beveridge.

Delayed a year courtesy of you-know-what, it is a love story for the ages lovingly told but still with plenty of bite, particularly when Joanna Ampil’s Bloody Mary gets going. It’s a great part to have and Ampil makes the most of it.

Beck and Ovenden make a well-matched pair. Beck, who is pregnant with her second child, will be sharing the Forbush role with Alex Young, herself a newish mother (some performances from 5 August, full-time from 23 August) by which time Gina will be too involved in her next production!

Young will be the third Sondheim Student Performer of the Year in the show as Adrian Grove plays Commander Harrison and Carl Au, the first winner in 2007, is Stewpot. Is this a record?

Much of the show’s humour comes from Keir Charles’ character, Seabee Luther Billis, played by American comedy actor Ray Walston in the original West End run and the movie where he and Gaynor were the only two main characters to use their own voices.

Evans seems to have made more of the lessers parts, like Captain Brackett (David Birrell) and Commander Harbison (Grove), both excellent. Great set too from Peter McKintosh.

I’m ashamed to admit this was my first visit to Chichester. It’s such a warm place, can’t think why I’ve waited until my 80th year to be embraced by it.

What a joy it was to have staggered seating with no 6ft 6in giant in front of you to spoil the view and a well-briefed staff who made everyone one feel incredibly welcome.

And the clapping, cheering and the standing ovation from a socially-distanced audience overwhelmed with the joy of having live theatre back again brought a lump to the throat and a shiver down the spine. Truly, some enchanted evening.

Jeremy Chapman