“South Pacific” by LAOS
Loughborough Town Hall

The musical focuses on Nellie, an American nurse, Nellie Forbush, stationed on an island in the South Pacific during World War 2, who falls in love with a French plantation owner, Emile De Becque, but struggles with the fact that he has two mixed-race children by his late Polynesian wife.

There’s a secondary romance involving young U.S. lieutenant, Joe Cable, and a young Tonkinese woman, Liat, daughter pf Bloody Mary. Both situations highlight the racial prejudices of the period.

The plot and musical is based on a 1947 novel by James A. Michener called “Tales of the South Pacific” and Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, would send a strong progressive message on racism. On both accounts, they succeeded.

This is one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s best and most loved musicals with many of the songs being so well known that they have graced the music charts over the years in various guises. “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Happy Talk”, “A Cock Eyed Optimist”, “Bali Hai”, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair”, “Younger Than Springtime”, "I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy" to name just a few.

Loughborough Amateur Operatic Society have a long history of presenting classic musicals like this and this is just another whopping success to add to their extensive CV.

Directed by James Nelson, it's pacy with some smooth and well executed scene changes. Bearing in mind that this is a lengthy musical, coming in at just under three hours with an interval, it's not an easy directorial piece.

The cast were, as usual, excellent with some very strong voices.

Jonathan Penton (Emile De Becque ) was wonderful with a French accent that didn't sound over pronounced, it sounded very natural. He also has a gorgeously rich singing voice which I could listen to for ages.

Gemma Landers (Ensign Nellie Forbush) captured the very essence of a woman torn by love and what other people may think of her being involved in a family with mixed race kids. We all knew that love would win the day!

Ollie Lewin (Lt. Joseph Cable) looked the classic U.S. young army person, like a blond Tom Cruise in "Top Gun"

Chris Wilson (Luther Billis) is an actor that I have a lot of time for. He plays to his strengths with comedy and this is the perfect role for him as the wise cracking Billis. His "Honey Bun" immediately raised smiles and his interpretation of "Bali Hai" is what I can imagine rock singers Dave Grohl or Chad Kroeger would sound like doing musical theatre.

Gemma Baxter (Bloody Mary) was another absolute joy and where as Jonathan Penton reigned in the

French twang, Gemma went the other way and produced a wonderfully funny character piece, exactly how the character of Bloody Mary should be played.

Effie Langley-Evans (Liat) again played the part just right, never over stating the role as the girl who fell in love with Cable. A lovely gentle performance which gave you the "aahh" factor.

Richard York (Capt. George Brackett) and Kevin Clarke (Cmdr. William Harbison) were solid throughout with that needed air of authority.

Ayeka Edirisinghe and Inodh Jayawardhena played the two young children, Ngana and Jerome with great confidence.

A large ensemble who were just brilliant fun to watch. The choreography executed by the dancers was spot on and shows the hard work put in by choreographer Hannah Osgood and the cast.

I must pick out one member of the ensemble who I kept coming back to for his dancing as well as his vocals in "There is Nothing Like A Dame" and that's Joe Harrison. Every piece of choreography, and there are various styles in this musical, looked very natural to Joe. His vocals actually surprised me as I was not expecting that deep voice to come from Joe.

The orchestra sounded amazing under Hazel Needham's Musical Direction.

There were a couple of first night wobbles that would have gone un-noticed by most audience members but these were minor things that in no way detracted from the sheer joy of this production.

A tip here for you. Get to your seats for 7,20pm so that you can see the added dance section to some great 1940's Big Band songs. An additional treat and look out for the nod to LAOS' next production in March 2018 in this show!

“South Pacific” is at Loughborough Town Hall until Saturday 16 September 2017.