Rodgers and Hammerstein

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were an innovative, influential and successful American musical writing team who created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, bringing us the 'golden age' of musical theater.

Their writing partnership has been described by many as the greatest of the 20th century, and several of their shows were outstanding successes. One of these was South Pacific, which opened on Broadway on 7th April 1949, where it ran for over five years.

The play was based on James Michener's book Tales of the South Pacific, which was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical which would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism, and for their own adaptation of his book, they won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950.

Combining elements of several stories from the book, the play follows Nellie Forbush, an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner, but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. 

A secondary plot focuses on the romance between Joe Cable, a US lieutenant hailing from a highly regarded Main Line family, who frets over what the social consequences might be in Philadelphia society, should he marry his Asian sweetheart, a young Tonkinese woman.

There has been several adaptations South Pacific on television and film, but I haven't yet found one on radio. However, in the Phil Harris/Alice Faye show of the same title, the Harris's have finally got some tickets for the performance - and if you've never seen South Pacific, I'd really recommend listening to Phil's attempt to explain the story line... I hope I've done a better job!

Happy listening my friends,