Walnut's 'South Pacific': Overwhelming musical fun

The Walnut Street Theatre kicks off its 208th season with a production of

South Pacific

that demonstrates, in superlative style, what the company does best: convey the fun and the overwhelming, entertaining spirit of a musical.

Composer Richard Rodgers, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein III, and book writer Joshua Logan based their musical on James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific. On the New Hebrides islands during World War II, naive American nurse Nellie (Kate Fahrner) falls in love with Emile De Becque (Paul Schoeffler), a French plantation owner with a mysterious past.

Their romance plays out against a backdrop of comic and adventurous stories set during the military standoff in the Pacific, and it draws parallels between the ideals fought for in the war and the battle against racism that soldiers from the States brought with them overseas.

Robert Andrew Kovach's imaginative set design bursts with flowers, palm fronds, towering coconut stalks, and the limbs of banyan trees. Rotating set pieces feature Quonset huts, a shimmering rocky waterfall, and the twin peaks of a volcano. Paul Black's lighting drapes the backdrops and settings with a soft glow, which, together with the bright blues, soft pastels, and military green of Mary Folino's costumes, finds the island paradise now interrupted by the ships and soldiers of wartime.

Fahrner's ebullient singing pairs well with Schoeffler's smoky baritone, illustrating how their differing backgrounds blend lovingly in song. Ben Michael's performance as Lt. Cable adds a spirit of dashing romance.

Fan favorite Fran Prisco continues to shine as the Walnut's star character actor, appearing here as Luther Billis, a scheming-yet-harmless enlisted sailor whose military shenanigans drive much of the show's humor. Lori Tan Chinn's Bloody Mary finds heart and depth in the role of an island woman trying to profiteer from the war.

A stellar ensemble infuses the choral numbers with boisterous energy and fleshes out the subplots with sharply drawn characterizations. Charles Abbott's direction seamlessly integrates all of these elements.

"One waits so long for what is good," De Becque remarks, but at the Walnut, South Pacific shows how the company consistently continues to produce consuming, escapist, and fun fantasies set to song for the heart's delight.