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The Lied Center of Kansas brought South Pacific to Lawrence on Wednesday. The night’s performance, based on the Lincoln Center Theater production, assembled a cast of varied talents, impressive sets, and colorful costumes which brought the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to life.  

The bulk of Act I suffered from a lack of energy and connection to the text—perhaps the culprit of a burnt-out cast, giving a Wednesday night performance. The opening dialogue between our main characters Ensign Nellie Forbush, played by Katie Reid, and Emile de Becque, Marcelo Guzzo, was stiff and lacked natural flow. Their musical numbers, however, displayed some great singing. Guzzo’s powerful and resonant baritone voice commanded a musically sensitive rendition of the beloved tune, “Some Enchanted Evening.”

The lagging energy displayed in the opening scene briefly dissipated, however, with the entrance of the men’s chorus (including the endearing Luther Billis, played by Christian Marriner) and the song, “Bloody Mary,” which, in addition to vibrant singing and acting, included some impressive dance displays—flips, jumps, and splits to name a few. Bloody Mary, played by Cathy Foy-Mahi, quickly charmed the audience with her brazen personality as she chassed the sailors around the stage with a shrunken head and called out men for being, “filthy bastards!” Foy-Mahi’s voice was secure and agreeable during her solo number, “Bali Ha’i.”  

After this brief surge of energy, however, the cast quickly fell back into their previous dramatic foibles—the dialogue was stiff and mechanical, the energy of the spoken lines was dropped instead of being propelled forward, and there was some anticipating of cues and lines (most noticeable in the set-up of jokes and humorous moments) that distracted from believability.

The remainder of the first act was not entirely disappointing, though. Lieutenant Joseph Cable, played by Shane Donovan, (though he too suffered from some awkward issues with flow of dialogue) sang with a voice that was silky and clean, which showed most notably in the numbers, “My Girl Back Home” and “Younger Than Springtime.” Reid’s (Nellie) speech and voice, too, warmed up toward the end of Act I as she showed some youthful exuberance and energy in, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair.”

The intermission and the opening of the second act seemed to refresh the cast. Instead of continuing the stiff dialogue previously seen, the cast settled in to a more natural grove. Reid, along with Marriner (Billis) and the ensemble carried great energy in the Act II song, “Honey Bun.” The relationship dynamic between Reid and Guzzo (Emile), fostered by the stark, serious material of the play’s subject matter, was true to the characters and believably accepted by the audience. This seemed to speak for all of the actors onstage as well—as the subject matter darkened and the plot turned from innocently light-hearted to harsh and real, the characters clicked in to the story line, acting and delivering their lines with credibility and conviction.

Lieutenant Cable’s “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught,” a commentary on themes of racial tension and discrimination which Hammerstien masterfully wove into his libretto, was followed by Emile’s big sing, “This Nearly Was Mine,” an impressive number for Guzzo, whose voice and textual conviction was unfaltering, commanding, powerful, and present.

The cast put together a believable Act II, indicative of the audience’s genuine reactions to the plot—as we find out via a radio broadcast that Lieutenant Cable had been killed, gasps could be heard in the audience. Though Act I suffered a staleness and stiffness that affected the reception of the story, the company redeemed themselves in the second act with sufficient enough energy to hit home the message and deliver this long-time classic musical in an generally enjoyable way.

REVIEW:
Lied Center of Kansas
South Pacific
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Lied Center, KU Campus
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For more information, visit www.lied.ku.edu

Top Photo: Marcelo Guzzo and Kaite Reid as Emile De Beque and Nellie Forbush (Photo by Peter Coombs)

By Tom Marks

Classical Contributor

Tom Marks holds a degree in vocal performance (B.M., summa cum laude) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is currently pursing a degree in musicology (M.M.), also from the UMKC Conservatory. A graduate teaching assistant, Tom can generally be found
rummaging through books in the UMKC library, exploring potential research topics. In addition to researching music, Tom is an active vocal performer (baritone) and has appeared in various venues throughout the Kansas City area. Recently, Tom has appeared in productions of the Kansas City Metro Opera, Bay View Summer Music Festival in Bay View, Michigan, and UMKC’s choral, musical theater, and opera department.

Outside of the conservatory, Tom is a music intern at the Village Presbyterian Church where he performs solo and choral vocal music and, on occasion, conducts the Village choir. Tom also writes program notes for the Bach Aria Soloists 2011–12 concert series. Future aspirations include a Ph.D. in musicology with an emphasis in early music, particularly of the late Renaissance and early baroque periods.