Jake Goz, Todd Lawson and Joe Capstick in “South Pacific,” playing at Maine State Music Theatre. Photo courtesy of Maine State Music Theatre The locales visited in the classic musical “South Pacific” may not seem as exotic as they did when the show premiered in 1949. WHAT: “South Pacific” by Maine State Music Theatre WHERE: Pickard Theatre, 1 Bath Rd, Brunswick REVIEWED: June 7 (matinee); continues through June 22 TICKETS: Starting at $93 CONTACT: 207-725-8769, msmt.
org Many people beyond service members have been there as tourists to experience the allure of palm trees and gentle breezes. But the great songs and social commentary of the periodically revived Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway mega-hit can still conjure a sense of warmth and wonder. In a co-production with the Fulton Theatre of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Maine State Music Theatre has brought the show to its home stage at Pickard Theater in Brunswick.
With South Seas-styled set pieces and projections, the audience is transported to a highly fictionalized World War II era when boisterous American soldiers, sailors and nurses mingle freely with charming, old-world émigrés and hard-working Polynesians. A good deal of the drama of the show comes from the author’s forward-thinking consideration of how racial attitudes of the era could alter the course of a truer sense of love that might blossom in this faraway paradise. Co-directed by Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark and choreographed by Robin, the roughly.
