Show falls short of a Bali Hai

SOUTH PACIFIC, Palace, Manchester
UNTIL this American stab at the Rodgers and Hammerstein favourite came along, a much humbler British production from almost 20 years ago, starring Emile Belcourt and Gemma Craven, was the definitive modern version.

And as far as I’m concerned, despite this show’s many awards since it hit Broadway in 2008, that still holds true.

While this Lincoln Center (their spelling) Theatre production by Bartlett Sher has scale, strong central performances and a lively set, overall it’s something of a South Sea bubble: full of air.

I’ll roll out the usual phrases about the work; about it being the anti-racist examination of a small-town girl in a big-town war a long way from home; about R&H having done this decades before racism was a big-deal subject, and about how for the first time a real war was the subject for a musical and the young romantic lead actually dies.

As well as all its other virtues, this is a remarkable theatre work of its time — all wrapped up in a love story and one of the great musical scores of theatre history.

This production has a lavish set with warm lighting, great backdrops and much more — even a remarkably good parked fighter plane!

But get beyond the look, and the reinsertion of the little cuts often made to make the show less “political”, and what you have is a fairly workmanlike night out, given the praise heaped upon it.

The men’s chorus on Nothing Like a Dame, for instance, moves like a bunch of dancers rather than a gang of naval ratings; the admirable, operatic voice of Jason Howard as Emile is matched to a slightly stiff performance; the Luther Billis of Alex Ferns is hardly larger than life.

At times it’s as if the show is being performed as drama rather than musical theatre; it needs more energy and liveliness.

Only Loretta Ables Sayre as Bloody Mary offers the right level of invective, and Samantha Womack as Nellie effectively portrays her happiness and sorrows while attractively singing her way through the score — though slightly low-key at times.

If they had done a video of that 20-year-old production, they could have shown the Americans how it should be done...