With a score that features some of the most beloved songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue and a book that some would argue was ahead of its time when the show debuted on Broadway in 1949, South Pacific represents a weighty undertaking for any theatrical troupe, whether on Broadway or on tour. And with the NETWorks tour headed to Nashville for an eight-performance run at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall, much of that responsibility falls to Katie Reid, who plays Ensign Nellie Forbush, and Sarna Lapine, who’s charged with recreating Bartlett Sher’s Tony Award-winning direction for the national tour.
With its plot drawn from James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book, Tales of the South Pacific, the musical (with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan) focuses on the story of Nellie Forbush, a young nurse from Little Rock, who falls in love with an expatriate French planter named Emile DeBecque, candidly exploring the issue of racial prejudice (specifically in the song “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”) at a time that most people were happy to disregard its implications.
“What Bart [Bartlett Sher, director of the 2008 Broadway revival] did and what I’ve tried to carry on in the tour, is to give the show its roots in the naturalism of the original production—what Josh Logan worked out with Rodgers and Hammerstein to bring the show to the stage,” says Lapine, who for the past six years has worked closely with Sher as his assistant director, serving a theatrical apprenticeship that has made her the perfect choice to stage the NETWorks tour.
“Helping actors understand what it was like to grow up as men and women during the Depression is an important part,” she explains. “It’s a strong learning curve and Bart is a wonderful mentor—and six years is a significant amount of time to spend in an apprenticeship. I feel that I’ve grown; for a young director, the trick is to find opportunity to do your own work while you are learning.”
Maintaining the show’s integrity as the company moves around the country—Nashville is just the latest city to host the tour—requires that Lapine and her actors continue a dialogue of sorts while on tour to ensure that audiences always see the best the company has to offer.
“I try to stay connected as best I can to what the artists are doing,” Lapine explains. “I have a really wonderful cast and they reach out to me personally with questions and comments and we have a really great musical director who ensures that songs are kept on-tempo, giving notes and making sure things are running smoothly. Sometimes I’ll go out to check out the troupe and we regularly hold auditions for replacements to the cast.”
It’s vital, Lapine contends, that she—as well as the rest of the company—remain “true to the artistic impulses of the original creators” of South Pacific in order to retain the show’s visceral and emotional impact.
“Logan was a Stanislavsky guy and taking that approach helps the actors,” she says. “I feel connected to it. I spent time reading a lot of the history of South Pacific and learning how this thing got built, trying to root myself in the vision of the original team and the vision of our creative team for the 2008 revival, seeing the way this classic piece could be revived and made relevant today.”
“There’s a lot that comes with the role,” says Katie Reid, the actress who, as Nellie Forbush, washes that man right out of her hair onstage every night. “There’s a lot of responsibility and it’s a taxing role. It’s also such an honor to follow in the footsteps of the women who’ve done the role before. It’s such a beautifully written show and it has such a history that it resonates with the audience wherever we go.”
