Change Your Image
william-keating1
Reviews
Live from Lincoln Center: South Pacific (2010)
As fine as the original, and that is very special indeed
This 2008 production of South Pacific, billed as the first Broadway revival, opened to universal acclaim and ran for over two years. Ben Brantley, chief theater critic of the New York Times, called it the closest to perfect musical that he had ever seen.
There are always some dissenters around, which I suppose is better than having complete unanimity all the time. But, although Mary Martin and Mitzi Gaynor were wonderful performers and fine Nellies, Kelli O'Hara does not play second or third fiddle to anyone. To say that she has limited range is to show one's ignorance: she has a degree in opera and was the pupil of noted voice instructor Florence Birdwell. Some years after this role Ms. O'Hara made her Metropolitan Opera House debut in the operetta The Merry Widow to good reviews.
This South Pacific was performed in the Vivian Beaumont theater with a twenty nine piece orchestra playing the original arrangements. The night that I saw it was my finest experience in a theater.
I don't know why no DVD was released even after five years had passed. I believe that those that control Live from Lincoln Center want to keep the productions truly live when viewed. There may have been issues over royalties.
But now that television programs can be taped in high quality on DVRs, there no longer seems much reason not to issue a DVD and make some money.