The last time we saw Danielle Wade on the Goodspeed Opera House stage, the musical theater star was nimbly leaping from floor to table and executing other extraordinary dance moves in “Summer Stock.” “Sadly, there is no jumping on tables this time,” Wade said. But she will be wearing similarly comfortable summer wear and leaping equally gracefully in “South Pacific,” the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic set on a tropical island during World War II opening at the Goodspeed Opera House on June 14.
Even for a Rodgers & Hammerstein opus, “South Pacific” is jam-packed with songs that have become American standards: “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” “Bali H’ai” “Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and “This Nearly Was Mine.” The musical is based on the book “Tales of the South Pacific” by James Michener, who became one of the best-known historical novelists of the 20th century. “There’s something fulfilling about a classic,” Wade said, who added that “everyone used to tell me I’d be a good Nellie Forbush.
” Nellie is the Navy nurse from the U.S. midwest who falls for plantation owner Emile deBecque, played by Omar Lopez-Cepero, who was last at the Goodspeed in the Rodgers & Hammerstein revue “A Grand Night for Singing.
” Wade came to the part having seen the movie version long ago and never having seen “South Pacific” done onstage. “I had the good fortune of not hearing someone else’s voice.