SYNOPSIS:
South Pacific is a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein that first appeared on Broadway in 1949. Later, in 1958 it was made into a film. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by Austin local James A. Michener. South Pacific was both a commercial and critical success, with revivals on the West End of London and on Broadway in 2008. The show won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto, and is the only musical to win all four acting categories.
The plot centers on an American nurse stationed at a U.S. Naval base on a South Pacific island during World War II who falls in love with an expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A second romance, between a U.S. lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of the social consequences should he wed his Asian sweetheart. The issue of racial prejudice is candidly explored throughout the musical, most controversially in the lieutenant's song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." Supporting characters, including a comic petty officer and the Tonkinese girl's mother, tie the stories together.
~ Adapted from Wikipedia
