South Pacific Announces National Tour Casting, Dates
The forthcoming national tour of the Tony-winning revival of South Pacific has announced casting and a schedule of cities through August 1, 2010. The tour will launch at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco from September 18 through October 25, with engagements across the country to follow.
The tour will be led by Grammy-nominated opera singer Rod Gilfry as Emile de Becque and Carmen Cusack (leading roles in companies of Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables) as Nellie Forbush, with Anderson Davis (Lt. Cable), Matthew Saldivar (Luther Billis), Keala Settle (Bloody Mary), Gerry Becker (Capt. Brackett), Peter Rini (Cmdr. Harbison), Sumie Maeda (Liat), Rusty Ross (Professor) and original Broadway cast member Genson Blimline (Stewpot).
The ensemble will include Christopher Carl, Eric L. Christian (from the Broadway production), Jacqueline Colmer, Mike Evairste (from the Broadway production), Kate Fahrner, Nicholas Galbraith, Chad Jennings, Christopher Johnstone, Kristie Kerwin, Jodi Kimura, Joe Langworth, Diane Phelan, John Pinto Jr, Travis Robertson, Josh Rouah, Kristen J. Smith, Matt Stokes, Gregory Williams and Victor Wisehart. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
Based on James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Set on a tropical island during World War II, the musical tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples—U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque and Navy Airman Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat—and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices.
Directed by Bartlett Sher, Lincoln Center Theater’s revival won seven 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. As on Broadway, the tour will include a full orchestra. A complete schedule of cities can be found at www.SouthPacificOnTour.com.
