“South Pacific,” the latest production of Aloha Performing Arts Company, opens tonight at Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu.
The enchanting Rodgers and Hammerstein musical brings to life two romances set on a South Pacific island during World War II. A naive Navy nurse falls in love with a worldly French planter, and a Marine lieutenant from an upper crust Philadelphia family falls in love with a beautiful native girl, amid a lively cast of Navy Seabees, officers, nurses and comic characters all singing their hearts out in this most exotic locale.
The musical will be will be at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays through March 13. Tickets are $27 for adults; $22 for seniors/young adults; and $10 for children.
“South Pacific” features music composed by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and is based off a book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The show premiered on Broadway in 1949 and was an immediate success. It has since been revived on the Great White Way five times, most recently in 2008, featuring Hawaii’s Loretta Ables Sayre as Bloody Mary.
The story is based on James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book “Tales of the South Pacific.” Rodgers and Hammerstein believed that they could create a musical based on Michener’s work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, would send a strong message on racism.
Purchase tickest online at www.apachawaii.org, by calling 322-9924 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, or at the box office one hour before show time.
Info: 322-9924, www.apachawaii.org.