Wash This Show Right Out of Your Hair

Bali Hai - My special island
Bali Hai - Really slow
Bali Hai - Glad I didn't pay for it
Bali Hai - Holy Cow

OK, slow doesn't rhyme with cow. Last night Plot and Duck, armed with terrific expectation, went to the opening of the road company version of 'South Pacific,' that had a very successful remounting last year on Broadway. Plot texted JJ-aka-PP before the show and she texted back that it was one her favorite shows too. Plot has always been in awe of Richard Rodgers' gift with melody, so he brought the five stars along with him and stuck them in his pocket with his bag of Famous Amos cookies. He was sure he'd eat all the cookies and distribute five stars like pixie dust.

The only remaining question is: if he took a child's chemistry set and threw it into the Pacific Ocean, could there possibly be fewer sparks generated than in this production?

The songs, for the most part, still stand up, kind of, but with the exception of "This Nearly Was Mine," "Happy Talk" and "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" in Act Two, Plot found himself wondering if Richard Rodgers was going to rise out of the audience and smite the director with a rotten coconut?

And that romance you see above -- the buff hero with what appears to be a ten year old Tonkinese girl? Ah, sweet love? Brrrrrr.

Opening Night is never a good time to have an off night, but maybe it was just that.

The sad part is there is a live orchestra! Plot's favorite! A live orchestra, with no synthesizers, gives a four star show a shot at a five star rating! Sigh.

You can read the San Francisco Theater Blog review of "South Pacific" here.