South Pacific is a perfect lesson in how to stage a giddy, romantic, wartime musical
5/5
At Chichester Festival Theatre, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 escapist show is full of gorgeous music, high spirits and serious smarts A gladdening sight and pulse-quickening sound : South Pacific
Credit: Johan Persson
My, how I’ve missed Chichester Festival Theatre – finally flinging open its doors for a proper summer season. And my, how I’ve missed the gladdening sight and pulse-quickening sound of a major American musical done to perfection.
Just to see a large cast dancing, and singing its lungs out, feels like witnessing an act of rebirth. And the Covid-caused delay of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific has made its facets of warmth and giddy escape more significant.