Reviews are in for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific currently playing at Sadler’s Wells in London.
Daniel Evan’s wonderful production, first seen in Chichester in 2019, is back with a heady cast of musical theatre stars including Julian Ovenden (Merrily We Roll Along, Finding Neverland, Sunday In The Park with George), Gina Beck (Matilda, Show Boat) and Rob Houchen (Les Miserables, Eugenius, The Light in the Piazza ).
Lead casting also features Joanna Ampil, Sera Maehara, David Birrell, Stephen John Davis, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Charlie Waddell, Douggie McMeekin and Olly Christopher .
The cast is completed by Iroy Abesamis, Feline Andersson, Charlotte Coggin, Annabel Edwards, Leslie Garcia Bowman, Sergio Giacomelli, Ellie Jane Grant, Josh Kiernan, Matthew Maddison, Rachel Jayne Picar, Kate Playdon, George Renshaw, Pierce Rogan, Charlotte Scott, Trezel Sergeant, Nikhil Singh Rai, James Wilkinson-Jones and Eleanor Wainwright.
A powerful love story set on an island in the South Pacific during WWII, the musical features many of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most memorable tunes including “Some Enchanted Evening”, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” and “Bali Ha’i”.
Book tickets to South Pacific at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London
Read a round-up of reviews for South Pacific – more reviews to follow.
South Pacific reviews
"Sumptuous"
"Daniel Evans’ delicately revelatory staging is a Rodgers and Hammerstein revival for the ages"
"This is emotionally and intellectually stimulating musical theatre bliss that retains its ability to shock"
"Barely puts a foot, or a note, wrong"
"This revelatory production celebrates the lush score and clarifies the script’s attitude to race and exploitation"
"Ovenden brings a wonderful depth and richness to Emile’s songs, while Beck is a bright, breezy Nellie, necessarily superficial but with a voice like a bell. Ampil brings an edge of pathos to the pidgin-English Happy Talk, and shares the comic honours with Douggie McMeekin, winningly rogueish as the camp’s fixer Luther Billis. Houchen is terrific as the callow but steadfast Cable."
"Succumb to the siren call from this island paradise of a musical"
"Daniel Evans's 2021 production of Rogers and Hammerstein's classic is sublimely well-sung, great fun. but punchy too"
"Julian Ovenden’s powerful tenor voice ripples with emotion through a swoon-worthy Some Enchanted Evening. And there’s surely no more spine-tingling pairing of singer and song than his This Nearly Was Mine – agony warring with ecstasy. Rob Houchen also impresses as Lieutenant Cable, torn between military duty and his intense romance with Liat on Bali Ha’i."
"Smart revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s WW2-set jewel"
"... Daniel Evans’s Chichester Festival Theatre revival of ‘South Pacific’ is affirmation that you don’t actually have to irreverently deconstruct Rodgers & Hammerstein for them to feel relevant."
"Let’s be clear: the score is staggering, and that’s why ‘South Pacific’ still gets staged. It’s home to an almost indecent number of masterpieces, from the sassy proto-pop of ‘Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’ to the swooning romance of ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ to the excoriating ‘You’ve Got to Be Taught’ which is – the odd crass rhyme aside – a still blistering anti-racism song."
"Ultimately ‘South Pacific’ is a very pleasurable musical that also makes some serious points very well."
"An inventive and exhilarating thing of wonder"
"CHICHESTER Theatre's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic musical is a thing of wonder. In the space of a year, it has matured like fine wine and is now one of the most inventive and exhilarating musical productions in the UK."
"There are heaps of good musicals around as well as some great ones. Then there is South Pacific. If you see one musical this year, it has to be this."
