McEntire & Mitchell Set for South Pacific Concert
McEntire, who has starred in her sitcom Reba since 2001, earned rave reviews when she played the title character in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun in early 2001. She began her recording career in the mid-1970s and rose to prominence in the summer of 1980, when she scored her first top-10 hit, "You Lift Me Up to Heaven." She had her first number-one hit, "Can't Even Get the Blues," in 1982. Since then, she has garnered many more number-one singles. McEntire has released many concert films, but she made her feature film acting debut in 1990 playing Heather Gummer in Tremors. Other big screen credits include The Little Rascals, North and One Night at McCool's.
Mitchell won the 2000 Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate. He was also nominated for Tony Awards for his leading roles in Ragtime, King Hedley II and Man of La Mancha. Mitchell's other Broadway credits include Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Jelly's Last Jam. He was recently named president of the Actors' Fund of America.
South Pacific was adapted from two short stories by James Michener. The show centers on two love affairs that begin during WWII. The first affair is between a lieutenant, Joe Cable, and a young Polynesian girl. The second is between Nellie Forbush McEntire, a Navy nurse from Little Rock, and Emile de Becque Mitchell, a French planter. In the musical, the lives of these couples become intertwined after the two men go on a dangerous mission--and only one returns.
South Pacific features music by Richard Rodgers and a book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. The show made its Broadway debut in 1949 and played 1,925 performances at the Majestic Theatre. South Pacific won a total of nine Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.