The film version of South Pacific disappointed. The casting was uninspired especially the wooden Rossano Brazzi. The soundtrack album was so-so. This is the real thing – the brilliantly vibrant Original Broadway cast recording with Mary Martin in sparkling form and gravelly voiced Ezio Pinza espying her "One enchanted evening…across a crowded room." South Pacific was one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest hits. It opened in New York in April 1949 and ran for 1,925 performances. The songs were marvellous: they tumbled over each other in rich profusion - all scintillating, all memorable. Many were richly romantic like "Younger than Springtime", and "This Nearly Was Mine". Others were dreamily evocative, for instance Juanita Hall, as Bloody Mary, in singing the words – "Most people live on a lonely island lost in the middle of a foggy sea . Most people long for another island where they know they would like to be…" and then evokes the dream island "Bali Ha’I" (your own special island)." Others were wickedly humorous as when Mary Martin and the nurses agreed to "weep no more – show him what the door is for…" and "I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair" while the sailors agreed that "…nothing else is built the same, has a soft and wavy frame like the silhouette of a dame" in their song "There is Nothin’ Like A Dame".

The refurbished sound is very good, the documentation thorough with plenty of pictures and there are some bonus tracks: two songs "Loneliness of the Evening" and "My Girl Back Home" both sung by Mary Martin and a reprise of Bali Ha’i sung by Ezio Pinza and orchestrator Richard Rodney Bennett’s Symphonic Scenario for Concert Orchestra played by André Kostelanetz and the Philadelphia Orchestra "Pops."

Warmly recommended

Reviewer

Ian Lace

Reviewer

Ian Lace