Word: hammerstein
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That adjective "wonderful" applies to nearly everything about "South Pacific." Take the story, for instance. It was based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize "Tales Of The South Pacific," and the relationship of Oscar Hammerstein's piece to Michener's is closer than I would have supposed possible. There are, of course, the wonderful "characters," such as the lusty, nonchalant Luther Billis and the colorful, to say the least, Bloody Mary. There is also the love story of Lt. Joseph Cable and the native girl Liat, beautifully and simply told...
...main story, however, is chiefly Hammerstein's work. It is a love story, the pair involved consisting of a U. S. Navy nurse and a Frenchman who is approaching middle-age and lives in the south Pacific. I won't tax you with a synopsis of its details, but it adds up, despite a woefully slow first scene, to what is probably the first amorous relationship that has ever had any substance in the history of musicals...
...songs, they are the best Rodgers and Hammerstein have written in years. Just how many years I hesitate to say on one hearing, but my impression is that they outclass "Allegro's" songs by several leagues and run well ahead of "Carousel's." "Oklahoma!" probably has them beat on sheer quantity, but there was nothing in "Oklahoma!" quite so lovely as "Bali Hai," and nothing quite so boisterously whacky as "A Hundred And One Pounds of Fun," which contains, among other phrases of equal distinction, one that goes like this: "Where she is narrow she's as narrow...
...modernized production: "Oscar Hammerstein II did a splendid job in modernizing Bizet's Carmen . . . Even so, is there a single opera fan who would attend more than one or two performances of Carmen Jones...
...which I bring upto support a theory of mine that Oscar Hammerstein II ("Allegro's" Creator and Lyricist) has always been bad when he tries to say something deep, and always good when he lets his sense of humor creep in. And in line with this theory, all the scenes that most people appear to like best in "Allegro" are the lighter ones...