PicksInSix Review: South Pacific - Paramount Theatre
“There Is Nothin’ Like A Dame!”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy
The first decade of the impressive creative collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II spawned “Oklahoma! (1943),” “Carousel (1945),” “Allegro (1947),” “South Pacific (1949)” and “The King and I (1951).” Many followed—including “The Sound of Music (1959),” shortly before Hammerstein’s death—characterized by lush vocal arrangements, robust orchestrations and stories that challenged social norms. These stories, in some cases based on real people, changed how their audience viewed musicals, peeling back our own biases and revealing the raw, powerful emotions of love, loss and survival.
“Oklahoma!” received a special Pulitzer Prize Citation in 1944 for elevating the art form, but it was “South Pacific” that earned the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of only ten musicals to date to hold that distinction. Beyond the memorable score and compelling story adapted from James A. Michener’s own Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Tales of the Pacific” with the steady hand of Joshua Logan, the musical was controversial, epic and a colossal success, running for 1,925 performances.
And now, over 75 years later, the soaring melodies at the heart of “South Pacific,” as evidenced by the exceptional production now playing at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, still stay with you long after the final curtain. The Devon Hayakawa|Trent Stork directed revival stars the diminutive powerhouse Allsun O’Mallory as Nellie Forbush and a commanding performance by Devin Archer as Emile De Becque who find love on a south seas island during World War II.
The other love story, the developing relationship between Lt. Joseph Cable (Anthony Maggio) and Liat (Louisa Darr), leads to De Becque and Cable forming an alliance and teaming up for a dangerous mission to gather information on enemy positions and movements in the region, a serious departure from the fun and frivolity early on.
With a cast of over thirty, many making their first appearance at Paramount, and more than a dozen musicians under the musical direction of Kory Danielson who conducts, this is as massive a production of this classic that you will see. With Morgan DiFonzo’s fast-paced choreography, particularly in the O’Mallory-led ensemble numbers “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and “I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy,” and in the high-flying “Honey Bun” showcasing the belly-dancing skills of Matthew Michael Janisse who shines as the hilarious wheeler-dealer Seabee Luther Billis. Competing for Billis’s business is Liat’s mother Bloody Mary played by Cindy Chang, who pushes grass skirts and shrunken heads for a price while scheming to match her daughter with a husband. Mary’s tender homage to the mysterious island of “Bali Ha’i” lures Cable there to find and fall for Liat, that has all the signs of an ill-fated match.
It is Cable’s somber “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” that strikes at the prejudicial core of “South Pacific,” both in his relationship with Liat and between Nellie and Emile. O’Mallory’s “A Cockeyed Optimist” and Archer’s “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine” are terrific. And the always boisterous and bawdy “There Is Nothin’ Like A Dame” does not disappoint, amped up a bit here by some very buff Seabee-like types who have definitely been on an island by themselves too long. It’s all in good fun and what makes Paramount Theatre’s “South Pacific” an enchanting evening out for the whole family.
PHOTO|Boris Martin
Paramount Theatre
presents
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
SOUTH PACIFIC
23 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL
through June 14, 2026
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