South Pacific is a 1949 musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning, 1948 novel, Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its stories into a single plotline. The musical won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. The issue of racial prejudice was sensitively and candidly explored, particularly for the 1949 stage work.
On a South Pacific island during World War II, two Polynesian children, Ngana and Jerome, sing "Dites-Moi", a charming French song. A naive U.S. Navy nurse from Arkansas, Ensign Nellie Forbush, falls in love with middle-aged French plantation owner Emile de Becque. Even though everyone else is worried about the outcome of the war, Nellie explains to Emile that she's still "A Cockeyed Optimist." She and Emile are in love, but each wonders if the other reciprocates their feelings. Emile recalls how they met at a dinner held at the officers' club and were immediately drawn to each other. Nellie returns to the hospital for work and Emile calls Ngana and Jerome to him, revealing to the audience that they are his children, unbeknownst to Nellie. Get South Pacific tickets to find out this old story unfolds.
