Sunday, July 14, 2013

TPTBT (The Place to Be Tonight): Sunday, July 14, 2013


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Who: The Muny
What: Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific
When: Tonight at 8:15
Why:  When South Pacific hit the stage in 1949, the aftermath of the horror that was the war in the Pacific was still very much on everyone’s minds.  Combine that with the show’s occasionally trenchant commentary on racism, the futility of war, and what Emile De Becque, in a moment of despair, refers to as “a mean little world / Of mean little men,” and you can easily understand why the show took Broadway by storm.

The war has since receded to sepia-tinged nostalgia (although the mean little world of mean little men is still with us), so it's harder to put on a South Pacific with any real impact these days.  Judging from the critical response, the Many has nevertheless managed to do just that.  In his review for 88.1 KDHX, Bob Wilcox describes this South Pacific as "maybe the finest production of it I've ever seen."  In the Riverfront Times, Paul Friswold gives it "two thumbs up."  In the Belleville News Democrat, Lynn Venhaus says it's "simply magnificent, creating an as-good-as-it-gets enchanting evening at the Muny."

I could go on, but you get the idea.  For more information: muny.org

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