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“Since the authors of South Pacific are artists, they do not write propaganda. But art that has real validity is composed of moral principle as well as nature, the principle being the contribution of civilized people.” —Brooks Atkinson
Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific ran for 1,925 performances after opening on April 7, 1949. It was the only musical production to win all four Tony Awards in acting, as well as six others. The musical was based on a Pulitzer Prize winning book: "Tales of the South Pacific" written by James A. Michener.
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The story of South Pacific tells about soldiers serving in the South Pacific during World War II. The musical was on Broadway as the war ended.
The show also dealt with controversial topics, like the issue of racism. The song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," even got removed for a time because some found it offensive to teach that people are taught to be prejudiced, not born with it.
South Pacific lead the way for other shows to talk about important, controversial matters.
The show also dealt with controversial topics, like the issue of racism. The song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," even got removed for a time because some found it offensive to teach that people are taught to be prejudiced, not born with it.
South Pacific lead the way for other shows to talk about important, controversial matters.
“While making choices about when to include chorus girls or where to place noteworthy musical numbers may have seemed quite risky, addressing prejudice during the volatile era leading up to the Civil Rights Movement could have been downright dangerous. While writing South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein were repeatedly advised to remove numbers such as 'You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,' whose powerful lyrics suggests that, 'people’s hatred toward other people is not born, but must be learned.' They were so united in their belief that the message of this song was imperative to share with audiences, that they refused to remove it, even when politicians in Georgia tried to pass legislation outlawing entertainment addressing these issues.” —Alex Hsu
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"South Pacific was a very contemporary musical for its time. It’s about war that had happened just four years before they made the musical. It was based on a Pulitzer prize winning novel written only two years earlier. The people going to see the musical were people who might have been in the south Pacific during the war." —Megan Sanborn Jones
“The idea that you could talk about things that really matter in a musical was something that was ground-breaking, and that is an enormous legacy.” —Megan Sanborn Jones
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“Mary Martin ... said that the first time she heard “A Wonderful Guy” was when she met Rodgers and Hammerstein.... They had a present for her; it turned out to be a new song. While Rodgers played the song, Hammerstein croaked out the lyrics. She decided she had to sing it at once, so she sat down on the piano bench, getting more and more excited and making even wider gestures. When she reached the final words, ‘I’m in love with a wonderful guy,’ she flung back her arms and threw herself off the bench. Rodgers peered down at her and said solemnly, ‘Never sing it any other way.’” —Meryle Secrest