South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten
- Author: Lovensheimer, Jim
if the next volumes are as good as this, the series will contribute greatly to the still under-written history of the Broadway musical
South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten
- Author: Lovensheimer, Jim
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if the next volumes are as good as this, the series will contribute greatly to the still under-written history of the Broadway musical
About
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "South Pacific" has remained a mainstay of the American musical theater since it opened in 1949, and its powerful message about racial intolerance continues to resonate with twenty-first century audiences. Drawing on extensive research in the Rodgers and the Hammerstein papers, including Hammerstein's personal notes on James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, Jim Lovensheimer offers a fascinating reading of "South Pacific" that explores the show's complex messages and demonstrates how the presentation of those messages changed throughout the creative process. Indeed, the author shows how Rodgers and especially Hammerstein continually refined and softened the theme of racial intolerance until it was more acceptable to mainstream Broadway audiences. Likewise, Lovensheimer describes the treatment of gender and colonialism in the musical, tracing how it both reflected and challenged early Cold War Era American norms. This superb book offers an intriguing portrait of a Broadway masterpiece and the times in which it was written.
Contents
- 1. Who Can Explain It?
- 2. The Musical is the Message
- 3. An Adaptable Source: Michener's Tales of the South Pacific
- 4. False Starts: The Disappearance of Bill Harbison and Dinah Culbert
- 5. You've Got to be Carefully Rewritten: The Distillation of Racial Intolerance
- 6. Nellie and the Boys: Situating Gender in South Pacific
- 7. Culture Clash: Colonialism and South Pacific
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Appendix A: The Structure of Tales of the South Pacific
- Appendix B: Scene breakdown for South Pacific
- Appendix C: The Bright Young Executive of Today
- Appendix D: Comparison of final version and draft of I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out-a My Hair
- Appendix E: Comparison of final version and draft for I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy
- Appendix F: Original form for Happy Talk.
Awards and reviews
if the next volumes are as good as this, the series will contribute greatly to the still under-written history of the Broadway musical
