South Pacific - The New Broadway Cast Recording
[IMG:L]Sony Classics
Available May 27, 2008
There are several reasons you may want to own the CD of the current revival of South Pacific:
1. You have seen the wonderful show and want to have a permanent reminder of it.
2. You have not yet seen the show and tickets are hard to come by. Even if you've got them, they are for late summer, and you don't want to wait that long.
3. God knows how long it will be before you can get into the show; meanwhile you want the best possible substitute.
4. You wish to have one more worthy addition to your extensive collection of theater CDs.
5. You are in love with the winning voices of Paulo Szot and Kelli O'Hara, and this is one way to have them at your beck and call.
These are all good reasons. But suppose you already own the original cast recording with Ezio Pinza, Mary Martin and the rest. Why bother with another? The answer is the various ways in which the new recording gives you more for your buck.
1. The original CD runs 45 minutes and 23 seconds; the revival CD is a whopping 64 minutes and 47 seconds. So the first difference is an additional 19 minutes and 24 seconds—nothing to sneeze at. Granted, there are other, some even longer, versions, but they have problems: too operatic (Carreras and Te Kanawa) or pedestrian (the Trevor Nunn version) or featuring (sob) Glenn Close.
2. The new disc has a couple of more song numbers than the original, including "My Girl Back Home." It also has all the dramatic reprises and even one spoken dramatic scene. (I wish it had a few more.) You get a greater sense of the show's story. And it has been vetted by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.
3. Recorded sound today is a lot superior to what it was then, as is evident from the first few bars of the overture. Just look at your feet and see if the socks are still on.
True, some of the original voices were superior. The revival's Matthew Morrison has some high-note trouble that William Tabbert, the original Lt. Cable, didn't. And the new Bloody Mary, Loretta Ables Sayre, though a good singer, is no Juanita Hall. Her voice is too bland, in bartender terms less like a Bloody than a Virgin Mary, or even a Shirley Temple.
[IMG:R]But the two new leads are a must. Ezio Pinza, who did not even have a French planter's English, sounds like a grand old Italian opera star fresh off the boat. What does he see across a crowded room? A strange-or. And he conveys someone not only older than Nellie Forbush, but indeed old enough to have sung with Nellie Melba.
Then take Paulo Szot of the revival. Okay, you can't see how handsome and dashing he is, but you can hear it in his voice. After all, Emile in this version is 44, and why shouldn't he be? Compared to the very youthful Kelli O'Hara, he is older than springtime. And Szot even sports something that can pass for a French accent. No matter how crowded the room, what he clearly sees is a stranger.
Mary Martin was, of course, marvelous with her belt voice soaring to those C's in "Wonderful Guy." Now, Kelli's Nellie is perfectly pitched between a tomboyish mezzo and a true soprano, but not at all a girlie-girl. Just a girl, thank you. And O'Hara and Szot together—what a pair of lovers!
4. And with all that, you still get the superb original orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett, and Trude Rittman's fine original dance and incidental music arrangements.
Enjoy your original cast recording, if you have it, along with the new one, each for what is strictly its own. But if you don't have the original, savor the new one with the cozy feeling that you can do very nicely with just that. And, surely, it will make you want to see the show even that much more. So what of the waiting? Like parting, it can be a sweet sorrow.
