text: south pacific ( musical ) south pacific is a musical composed by richard rodgers , with lyrics by oscar hammerstein ii and book by hammerstein and joshua logan . the work premiered in 1949 on broadway and was an immediate hit , running for 1 , 925 performances . the plot of the musical is based on james a. michener 's pulitzer prize - winning 1947 book tales of the south pacific and combines elements of several of those stories . rodgers and hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on michener 's work that would be financially successful and , at the same time , would send a strong progressive message on racism . the plot centers on an american nurse stationed on a south pacific island during world war ii , who falls in love with a middle - aged expatriate french plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed - race children . a secondary romance , between a u.s. lieutenant and a young tonkinese woman , explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his asian sweetheart . the issue of racial prejudice is candidly explored throughout the musical , most controversially in the lieutenant 's song , " you 've got to be carefully taught " . supporting characters , including a comic petty officer and the tonkinese girl 's mother , help to tie the stories together . because he lacked military knowledge , hammerstein had difficulty writing that part of the script ; the director of the original production , logan , assisted him and received credit as co - writer of the book . the original broadway production enjoyed immense critical and box - office success , became the second - longest running broadway musical to that point ( behind rodgers and hammerstein 's earlier oklahoma ! ( 1943 ) ) , and has remained popular ever since . after they signed ezio pinza and mary martin as the leads , rodgers and hammerstein wrote several of the songs with the particular talents of their stars in mind . the piece won the pulitzer prize for drama in 1950 . especially in the southern u.s. , its racial theme provoked controversy , for which its authors were unapologetic . several of its songs , including " bali ha 'i " , " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " , " some enchanted evening " , " there is nothing like a dame " , " happy talk " , " younger than springtime " , and " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " , have become popular standards . the production won ten tony awards , including best musical , best score , and best libretto , and it is the only musical production to win tony awards in all four acting categories . its original cast album was the bestselling record of the 1940s , and other recordings of the show have also been popular . the show has enjoyed many successful revivals and tours , spawning a 1958 film and television adaptations . the 2008 broadway revival , a critical success , ran for 996 performances and won seven tonys , including best musical revival . background although book editor and university instructor james michener could have avoided military service in world war ii as a birthright quaker , he enlisted in the u.s. navy in october 1942 . he was not sent to the south pacific theater until april 1944 , when he was assigned to write a history of the navy in the pacific and was allowed to travel widely . he survived a plane crash in new caledonia ; the near - death experience motivated him to write fiction , and he began listening to the stories told by soldiers . one journey took him to the treasury islands , where he discovered an unpleasant village , called bali - ha 'i , populated by " scrawny residents and only one pig " . struck by the name , michener wrote it down and soon began to record , on a battered typewriter , his version of the tales . on a plantation on the island of espiritu santo , he met a woman named bloody mary ; she was small , almost toothless , her face stained with red betel juice . punctuated with profanity learned from gis , she complained endlessly to michener about the french colonial government , which refused to allow her and other tonkinese to return to their native vietnam , lest the plantations be depopulated . she told him also of her plans to oppose colonialism in french indochina . these stories , collected into tales of the south pacific , won michener the 1948 pulitzer prize for fiction . tales of the south pacific comprises nineteen stories . each stands independently but revolves around the preparation for an american military operation to dislodge the japanese from a nearby island . this operation , dubbed alligator , occurs in the penultimate story , " the landing at " . many of the characters die in that battle , and the last story is titled " the cemetery at point " . the stories are thematically linked in pairs : the first and final stories are reflective , the second and eighteenth involve battle , the third and seventeenth involve preparation for battle , and so on . the tenth story , at the center , however , is not paired with any other . this story , " fo ' dolla ' " , was one of only four of his many works that michener later admitted to holding in high regard . it was the one that attracted rodgers and hammerstein 's attention for its potential to be converted into a stage work . " fo ' dolla ' " , set in part on the island of bali - ha 'i , focuses on the romance between a young tonkinese woman , liat , and one of the americans , marine lieutenant joe cable , a princeton graduate and scion of a wealthy main line family . pressed to marry liat by her mother , bloody mary , cable reluctantly declines , realizing that the asian girl would never be accepted by his family or philadelphia society . he leaves for battle ( where he will die ) as bloody mary proceeds with her backup plan , to liat to a wealthy french planter on the islands . cable struggles , during the story , with his own racism : he is able to overcome it sufficiently to love liat , but not enough to take her home . another source of the musical is the eighth story , " our heroine " , which is thematically paired with the 12th , " a boar 's tooth " , as both involve american encounters with local cultures . " our heroine " tells of the romance between navy nurse nellie forbush , from rural arkansas , and a wealthy , sophisticated planter , frenchman emile de becque . after falling in love with emile , nellie ( who is introduced briefly in story # 4 , " an officer and a gentleman " ) learns that emile has eight daughters , out of wedlock , with several local women . michener tells us that " any person ... who was not white or yellow was a nigger " to nellie , and while she is willing to accept two of the children ( of french - asian descent ) who remain in emile 's household , she is taken aback by the other two girls who live there , evidence that the planter had cohabited with a darker polynesian woman . to her great relief , she learns that this woman is dead , but nellie endangers her relationship with emile when she is initially unable to accept emile 's " nigger children . " nellie overcomes her feelings and returns to spend her life with her plantation owner . additional elements of south pacific had their genesis in others of michener 's 19 tales . one introduces the character of bloody mary ; another tells of a british spy hidden on the japanese - controlled island who relays information about japanese movements to allied forces by radio . michener based the spy , dubbed " the man " , on captain martin clemens , a scot , who unlike his fictional counterpart , survived the war . the stories also tell of the seemingly endless waiting that precedes battle , and the efforts of the americans to repel boredom , which would inspire the song " there is nothing like a dame " . several of the stories involve the seabee , luther billis , who in the musical would be used both for comic relief and to tie together episodes involving otherwise unconnected characters . creation inception in the early 1940s , composer richard rodgers and lyricist oscar hammerstein ii , each a longtime broadway veteran , joined forces and began their collaboration by writing two musicals that became massive hits , oklahoma ! ( 1943 ) and carousel ( 1945 ) . an innovation for its time in integrating song , dialogue and dance , oklahoma ! would serve as " the model for broadway shows for decades " . in 1999 , time magazine named carousel the best musical of the century , writing that rodgers and hammerstein " set the standards for the 20th century musical " . their next effort , allegro ( 1947 ) , was a comparative disappointment , running for less than a year , although it turned a small profit . after this , the two were determined to achieve another hit . according to director joshua logan , a friend of both theatre men , he and leland hayward mentioned michener 's best - selling book to rodgers as a possible basis for the duo 's next play , but the composer took no action . logan recalled that he then pointed it out to hammerstein , who read michener 's book and spoke to rodgers ; the two agreed to do the project so long as they had majority control , to which hayward grudgingly agreed . michener , in his 1992 memoirs , however , wrote that the stories were first pitched as a movie concept to mgm by kenneth mackenna , head of the studio 's literary department . mackenna 's half brother was jo mielziner , who had designed the sets for carousel and allegro . michener states that mielziner learned of the work from mackenna and brought it to the attention of hammerstein and rodgers , pledging to create the sets if they took on the project . hayward attempted to buy the rights from michener outright , offering $ 500 ; michener declined . although playwright lynn riggs had received 1 . 5 % of the box office grosses for the right to adapt green grow the lilacs into oklahoma ! , michener never regretted accepting one percent of the gross receipts from south pacific . as rodgers and hammerstein began their work on the adaptation , michener worked mostly with the lyricist , but rodgers was concerned about the implications of the setting , fearing that he would have to include ukuleles and guitars , which he disliked . michener assured him that the only instrument he had ever heard the natives play was an emptied barrel of gasoline , drummed upon with clubs . composition soon after their purchase of the rights , rodgers and hammerstein decided not to include a ballet , as in their earlier works , feeling that the realism of the setting would not support one . concerned that an adaptation too focused on " fo ' dolla ' " , the story of the encounter between cable and liat , would be too similar to madama butterfly , hammerstein spent months studying the other stories and focused his attention on " our heroine " , the tale of the romance between nellie and emile . the team decided to include both romances in the musical play . it was conventional at the time that if one love story in a musical was serious , the other would be more comedic , but in this case both were serious and focused on racial prejudice . they decided to increase the role played by luther billis in the stories , merging experiences and elements of several other characters into him . billis 's wheeling and dealing would provide comic relief . they also shortened the title to south pacific – rodgers related that the producers tired of people making risqué puns on the word " tales " . in early drafts of the musical , hammerstein gave significant parts to two characters who eventually came to have only minor roles , bill harbison and dinah culbert . harbison is one of the major characters in tales of the south pacific ; a model officer at the start , he gradually degenerates to the point where , with battle imminent , he requests his influential father - in - law to procure for him a transfer to a post in the united states . hammerstein conceived of him as a rival to emile for nellie 's affections , and gave him a song , " the bright young executive of today " . as redrafts focused the play on the two couples , harbison became less essential , and he was relegated to a small role as the executive officer to the commander of the island , captain brackett . dinah , a nurse and friend of nellie , is also a major character in michener 's work , and was seen as a possible love interest for billis , though any actual romance was limited by navy regulations forbidding fraternization between officers ( all american nurses in world war ii were commissioned officers ) and enlisted men . " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " originated as a duet for dinah and nellie , with dinah beginning the song and developing its theme . according to lovensheimer , nellie 's and dinah 's " friendship became increasingly incidental to the plot as the writing continued . hammerstein eventually realized that the decision to wash emile out of her hair had to be nellie 's . only then did the scene have the dramatic potential for nellie 's emotional transition " as she realizes her love for emile . in the final version , dinah retains one solo line in the song . joshua logan , in his memoirs , stated that after months of effort in the first half of 1948 , hammerstein had written only the first scene , an outline , and some lyrics . hammerstein was having trouble due to lack of knowledge of the military , a matter with which logan , a veteran of the armed forces , was able to help . the dialogue was written in consultation between the two of them , and eventually logan asked to be credited for his work . rodgers and hammerstein decided that while logan would receive co - writing credit on the book , he would receive no author 's royalties . logan stated that a contract putting these changes into force was sent over to his lawyer with instructions that unless it was signed within two hours , logan need not show up for rehearsals as director . logan signed , although his lawyer did not then tell him about the ultimatum . through the decades that followed , logan brought the matter up from time to time , demanding compensation , but when he included his version of the events in his 1976 memoirs , it was disputed by rodgers ( hammerstein had died in 1960 ) . rodgers biographer meryle secrest suggests that logan was compensated when south pacific was filmed in 1958 , as logan received a substantial share of the profits as director . according to michener biographer stephen j. may , " it is difficult to assess just how much of the final book josh logan was responsible for . some estimates say 30 to 40 percent . but that percentage is not as critical perhaps as his knowledge of military lore and directing for the theatre , without which the creation of south pacific would have collapsed during that summer of 1948 . " rodgers composed the music once he received the lyrics from hammerstein . a number of stories are told of the speed with which he wrote the music for south pacific ' s numbers . " happy talk " was said to have been composed in about twenty minutes ; when hammerstein , who had sent the lyrics by messenger , called to check whether rodgers had received them , his partner informed him that he had both lyrics and music . legend has it he composed " bali ha 'i " in ten minutes over coffee in logan 's apartment ; what he did create in that time frame was the three - note motif which begins both song and musical . hammerstein 's lyrics for " bali ha 'i " were inspired by the stage backdrop which designer jo mielziner had painted . feeling that the island of bali ha 'i did not appear mysterious enough , mielziner painted some mist near the summit of its volcano . when hammerstein saw this he immediately thought of the lyric , " my head sticking up from a low - flying cloud " and the rest of the song followed easily from that . casting and out - of - town previews in may 1948 , rodgers received a telephone call from edwin lester of the los angeles civic light opera . lester had signed former metropolitan opera star ezio pinza for $ 25 , 000 to star in a new show , mr. ambassador . the show had not been written , and it never would be . lester hoped that rodgers would take over pinza 's contract . pinza had become bored as the met 's leading lyric bass , and having played the great opera houses , sought other worlds to conquer . rodgers immediately saw pinza as perfect for the role of emile . lester carefully broached the subject to pinza and his wife / business manager and provided them with a copy of tales of the south pacific . when pinza read the book , he told lester , " sell me right away ! " pinza 's contract for south pacific included a clause limiting his singing to 15 minutes per performance . with pinza 's signing , rodgers and hammerstein decided to make his the lead male role , subordinating the story of the pair of young lovers . it was unusual on broadway for the romantic lead to be an older male . for the role of nellie , rodgers sought mary martin , who had nearly been cast to originate the role of in oklahoma ! martin was playing the title role in the touring company of annie get your gun . after hammerstein and rodgers saw her play in los angeles in mid - 1948 , they asked her to consider the part . martin was reluctant to sing opposite pinza 's powerful voice ; rodgers assured her he would see to it the two never sang at the same time , a promise he mostly kept . rodgers and martin lived near each other in connecticut , and after her tour rodgers invited martin and her husband , richard halliday , to his home to hear the three songs for the musical that he had completed , none of them for nellie . " some enchanted evening " especially struck martin , and although disappointed the song was not for her , she agreed to do the part . although nellie and emile were already fully developed characters in michener 's stories , during the creation of south pacific , rodgers , hammerstein and logan began to adapt the roles specifically to the talents of martin and pinza and to tailor the music for their voices . martin influenced several of her songs . while showering one day during rehearsals , she came up with the idea for a scene in which she would shampoo her hair onstage . this gave rise to " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " . built around a primitive shower that logan remembered from his time in the military , the song became one of the most talked - about in south pacific . to introduce another of martin 's numbers to her , rodgers called her over to his apartment , where he and hammerstein played " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " for her . when martin essayed it for herself , she sang the final 26 words , as intended , with a single breath , and fell off her piano bench . rodgers gazed down at her , " that 's exactly what i want . never do it differently . we must feel you couldn 't squeeze out another sound . " the producers held extensive auditions to fill the other roles . myron mccormick was cast as billis ; according to logan , no one else was seriously considered . the two roles which gave the most trouble were those of cable and bloody mary . they tried to get harold keel for the role of cable ( he had played curly in the west end production of oklahoma ! ) only to find that he had signed a contract with mgm under the name howard keel . william was eventually cast as cable , though logan instructed him to lose 20 pounds ( 9 . 1 kg ) . african - american singer juanita hall was cast as bloody mary ; logan recalled that at her audition , she took a squatting pose which proclaimed , " i am bloody mary and don 't you dare cast anyone else ! " betta st. john , who under the name betty striegler had replaced bambi linn as louise in carousel , took the role of liat . logan directed ( he and hayward co - produced with rodgers and hammerstein ) , mielziner did the stage design , trude rittmann and robert russell bennett prepared the orchestration , and elizabeth montgomery of motley theatre design group designed the costumes . salvatore dell 'isola served as music director . original production rehearsals began at broadway 's belasco theatre on february 2 , 1949 . there was no formal chorus ; each of the nurses and seabees was given a name , and , in the case of the men , $ 50 to equip themselves with what clothing they felt their characters would wear from the military surplus shops which lined west 42nd street . don fellows , the first lt. buzz adams , drew on his wartime experience as a marine to purchase a non - regulation baseball cap and black ankle boots . martin and pinza had not known each other , but they soon formed a strong friendship . of the mood backstage , " everyone agreed : throughout the rehearsals logan was fiery , demanding , and brilliantly inventive . " he implemented lap changes ( pioneered by rodgers and hammerstein in allegro ) , whereby the actors coming on next would already be on a darkened part of the stage as one scene concluded . this allowed the musical to continue without interruption by scene changes , making the action almost seamless . he soon had the seabees pacing back and forth like caged animals during " there is nothing like a dame " , a staging so effective it was never changed during the run of the show . one logan innovation that rodgers and hammerstein reluctantly accepted was to have cable remove his shirt during the blackout after he and liat passionately embrace on first meeting , his partial nakedness symbolizing their lovemaking . as originally planned , martin was supposed to conclude " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " with an exuberant cartwheel across the stage . this was eliminated after she vaulted into the orchestra pit , knocking out . there were no major difficulties during the four weeks of rehearsal in new york ; martin later remembered that the " gypsy run - through " for friends and professional associates on a bare stage was met with some of the most enthusiastic applause she could remember . one of the few people having trouble was pinza , who had difficulty adjusting to the constant alterations in the show – he was used to the operatic world , where a role rarely changed once learned . pinza 's mispronunciations of english exasperated logan , and driving to new haven for the first week of previews , pinza discussed with his wife the possibility of a return to the met , where he knew audiences would welcome him . she told him to let south pacific ' s attendees decide for themselves . when the tryouts began in new haven on march 7 , the play was an immediate hit ; the new haven register wrote , " south pacific should make history " . nevertheless , a number of changes were made in new haven and in the subsequent two weeks of previews in boston . the show was running long ; logan persuaded his friend , playwright emlyn williams , to go over the script and cut extraneous dialogue . there were wide expectations of a hit ; producer mike todd came backstage and advised that the show not be taken to new york " because it 's too damned good for them " . the show moved to boston , where it was so successful that playwright george s. kaufman joked that people lining up there at the shubert theatre " don 't actually want anything ... they just want to push money under the doors . " south pacific opened on broadway on april 7 , 1949 , at the majestic theatre . the advance sale was $ 400 , 000 , and an additional $ 700 , 000 in sales was made soon after the opening . the first night audience was packed with important broadway , business , and arts leaders . the audience repeatedly stopped the show with extended applause , which was sustained at length at the final curtain . rodgers and hammerstein had preferred , in the past , not to sponsor an afterparty , but they rented the st. regis hotel 's roof and ordered 200 copies of the new york times in the anticipation of a hit . times critic brooks atkinson gave the show a rave review . three days after the opening , pinza signed a contract with mgm to star in films once his obligation to appear in the show expired . he left the show june 1 , 1950 , replaced by ray middleton , though pinza missed a number of shows due to illness before that . martin recalled that , unused to performing eight shows a week , the former opera star would sing full out early in the week , leaving himself little voice towards the end , and would have his understudy go on . nevertheless , during the year he was in the show , and although aged 58 , he was acclaimed as a sex symbol ; george jean nathan wrote that " pinza has taken the place of hot springs , saratoga , and hormone injections for all the other old boys " . a national tour began in cleveland , ohio , in april 1950 ; it ran for five years and starred richard eastham as emile , janet blair as nellie and ray walston as billis , a role walston would reprise in london and in the 1958 film . for the 48 , 000 tickets available in cleveland , 250 , 000 requests were submitted , causing the box office to close for three weeks to process them . jeanne bal and iva withers were later on this tour . a scaled - down version toured military bases in korea in 1951 ; by the request of hammerstein and rodgers , officers and enlisted soldiers sat together to view it . martin left the broadway production in 1951 to appear in the original london west end production ; martha wright replaced her . despite the departure of both original stars , the show remained a huge attraction in new york . cloris leachman also played nellie during the new york run ; george britton was among the later . the london production ran from november 1 , 1951 for 802 performances at the theatre royal , drury lane . logan directed ; martin and wilbur evans starred , with walston as billis , muriel smith as bloody mary and ivor emmanuel in the small role of sgt. johnson . sean connery and martin 's son larry hagman , both at the start of their careers , played seabees in the london production ; julie wilson eventually replaced martin . on january 31 , 1952 , king george vi attended the production with his daughter princess elizabeth and other members of the royal family . he died less than a week later . the broadway production transferred to the broadway theatre in june 1953 to accommodate rodgers and hammerstein 's new show , me and juliet , although south pacific had to be moved to boston for five weeks because of schedule conflicts . when it closed on january 16 , 1954 , after 1 , 925 performances , it was the second - longest - running musical in broadway history , after oklahoma ! . at the final performance , myron mccormick , the only cast member remaining from the opening , led the performers and audience in " auld lang syne " ; the curtain did not fall but remained raised as the audience left the theatre . synopsis act i on a south pacific island during world war ii , two half - polynesian children , ngana and jerome , happily sing as they play together ( " dites - moi " ) . ensign nellie forbush , a naïve u.s. navy nurse from little rock , arkansas , has fallen in love with emile de becque , a middle - aged french plantation owner , though she has known him only briefly . even though everyone else is worried about the outcome of the war , nellie tells emile that she is sure everything will turn out all right ( " a cockeyed optimist " ) . emile also loves nellie , and each wonders if the other reciprocates those feelings ( " twin soliloquies " ) . emile expresses his love for nellie , recalling how they met at the officers ' club dance and instantly were attracted to each other ( " some enchanted evening " ) . nellie , promising to think about their relationship , returns to the hospital . emile calls ngana and jerome to him , revealing to the audience that they are his children , unbeknownst to nellie . meanwhile , the restless american seabees , led by crafty luther billis , lament the absence of available women – navy nurses are commissioned officers and off - limits to enlisted men . there is one civilian woman on the island , nicknamed " bloody mary " , a sassy middle - aged tonkinese vendor of grass skirts , who engages the sailors in sarcastic , flirtatious banter as she tries to sell them her wares ( " bloody mary " ) . billis yearns to visit the nearby island of bali ha 'i – which is off - limits to all but officers – supposedly to witness a boar 's tooth ceremony ( at which he can get an unusual native artifact ) ; the other sailors him , saying that his real motivation is to see the young french women there . billis and the sailors further lament their lack of feminine companionship ( " there is nothing like a dame " ) . u.s. marine lieutenant cable arrives on the island from guadalcanal , having been sent to take part in a dangerous spy mission whose success could turn the tide of the war against japan . bloody mary tries to persuade cable to visit " bali ha 'i " , mysteriously telling him that it is his special island . billis , seeing an opportunity , urges cable to go . cable meets with his commanding officers , captain george brackett and commander william harbison , who plan to ask emile to help with the mission because he used to live on the island where the mission will take place . they ask nellie to help them find out more about emile 's background , for example , his politics and why he left france . they have heard , for instance , that emile committed a murder , and this might make him less than desirable for such a mission . after thinking a bit more about emile and deciding she has become attracted on the basis of little knowledge of him , nellie tells the other nurses that she intends to end her relationship with him ( " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " ) . when he arrives unexpectedly and invites nellie to a party where he will introduce her to his friends , however , she accepts . emile declares his love for nellie and asks her to marry him . when she mentions politics , he speaks of universal freedom , and describes fleeing france after standing up against a bully , who died accidentally as the two fought . after hearing this , nellie agrees to marry emile . after he exits , nellie joyously gives voice to her feelings ( " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " ) . cable 's mission is to land on a japanese - held island and report on japanese ship movements . the navy officers ask emile to be cable 's guide , but he refuses their request because of his hopes for a new life with nellie . commander harbison , the executive officer , tells cable to go on leave until the mission can take place , and billis obtains a boat and takes cable to bali ha 'i . there , billis participates in the native ceremony , while bloody mary introduces cable to her beautiful daughter , liat , with whom he must communicate haltingly in french . believing that liat 's only chance at a better life is to marry an american officer , mary leaves liat alone with cable . the two are instantly attracted to each other and make love ( " younger than springtime " ) . billis and the rest of the crew are ready to leave the island , yet must wait for cable who , unbeknownst to them , is with liat ( " bali ha 'i " ( reprise ) ) . bloody mary proudly tells billis that cable is going to be her son - in - law . meanwhile , after emile 's party , nellie and he reflect on how happy they are to be in love ( of " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " , " twin soliloquies " , " cockeyed optimist " and " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " ) . emile introduces nellie to jerome and ngana . though she finds them charming , she is shocked when emile reveals that they are his children by his first wife , a dark - skinned polynesian woman , now deceased . nellie is unable to overcome her deep - seated racial prejudices and tearfully leaves emile , after which he reflects sadly on what might have been ( " some enchanted evening " ( reprise ) ) . act ii it is thanksgiving day . the gis and nurses dance in a holiday revue titled " thanksgiving follies " . in the past week , an epidemic of malaria has hit the island of bali ha 'i . having visited bali ha 'i often to be with liat , cable is also ill , but escapes from the hospital to be with liat . as liat and cable spend more time together , bloody mary is delighted . she encourages them to continue their carefree life on the island ( " happy talk " ) and urges them to marry . cable , aware of his family 's prejudices , says he cannot marry a tonkinese girl . bloody mary furiously drags her distraught daughter away , telling cable that liat must now marry a much older french plantation owner instead . cable laments his loss . ( " younger than springtime " ( reprise ) ) . for the final number of the thanksgiving follies , nellie performs a comedy burlesque dressed as a sailor singing the praises of " his " sweetheart ( " honey bun " ) . billis plays honey bun , dressed in a blond wig , grass skirt and coconut - shell bra . after the show , emile asks nellie to reconsider . she insists that she cannot feel the same way about him since she knows about his children 's polynesian mother . frustrated and uncomprehending , emile asks cable why he and nellie have such prejudices . cable , filled with self - loathing , replies that " it 's not something you 're born with " , yet it is an ingrained part of their upbringing ( " you 've got to be carefully taught " ) . he also vows that if he gets out of the war alive , he won 't go home to the united states ; everything he wants is on these islands . emile imagines what might have been ( " this nearly was mine " ) . dejected and feeling that he has nothing to lose , he agrees to join cable on his dangerous mission . the mission begins with plenty of air support . offstage , billis stows away on the plane , falls out when the plane is hit by anti - aircraft fire , and ends up in the ocean waiting to be rescued ; the massive rescue operation inadvertently becomes a diversion that allows emile and cable to land on the other side of the island undetected . the two send back reports on japanese ships ' movements in the " slot " , a strategic strait ; american aircraft intercept and destroy the japanese ships . when the japanese zeros strafe the americans ' position , emile narrowly escapes , but cable is killed . nellie learns of cable 's death and that emile is missing . she realizes that she was foolish to reject emile because of the race of his children 's mother . bloody mary and liat come to nellie asking where cable is ; mary explains that liat refuses to marry anyone but him . nellie comforts liat . cable and emile 's espionage work has made it possible for a major offensive , operation alligator , to begin . the previously idle fighting men , including billis , go off to battle . nellie spends time with jerome and ngana and soon comes to love them . while the children are teaching her to sing " dites - moi , " suddenly emile 's voice joins them . emile has returned to discover that nellie has overcome her prejudices and has fallen in love with his children . emile , nellie and the children rejoice ( " dites - moi " ( reprise ) ) . principal roles and notable performers songs additional songs a number of songs were extensively modified , or were omitted , in the weeks leading up to the initial broadway opening . they are listed in the order of their one - time placement within the show : " bright canary yellow " , a short song for nellie and emile , was placed just before " a cockeyed optimist " , of which the opening line , " when the sky is a bright canary yellow " was intended to play off of the earlier song . " now is the time " ( emile ) was placed in the beach scene ( act i , scene 7 ) just after emile tells nellie why he killed the man in france . it was to be reprised after " you 've got to be carefully taught " , but it was felt that for emile to remain on stage while singing of immediate action was self - contradictory . it was replaced in act i by a reprise of " some enchanted evening " ; in act ii it was initially replaced by " will you marry me ? " ( later repurposed for pipe dream ) on march 24 , 1949 , and then by " this nearly was mine " on march 29 , just over a week before the broadway opening on april 7 . " loneliness of evening " ( emile ) was cut before the broadway opening . it was to occur in the first backstage scene ( act ii , scene 2 ) prior to " happy talk " and was sung to the same melody as " bright canary yellow " . its melody can be heard in the 1958 film as emile reads aloud the card with the flowers he has brought backstage for nellie to the thanksgiving show ; the second stanza was repurposed and sung by the prince in the 1965 tv production of cinderella . a reprise of " younger than springtime " that follows cable 's rejection of liat , was added after january 1949 . it followed two separate attempts at songs for cable . one song , designated as " my friend " was a duet for cable and liat , included such lyrics as " my friend , my friend , is coming around the bend " and was rejected by logan as one of the worst he 'd ever heard . rodgers and hammerstein 's second attempt to place a song there , " suddenly lovely " , was considered by logan too lightweight and was later repurposed for the king and i as " getting to know you " . the melody for " younger than springtime " was from a song , " my wife " , intended for allegro but not used . " honey bun " was not included in the january 1949 libretto ( a note marks that the lyrics will be supplied later ) . " my girl back home " ( cable ) preceded " you 've got to be carefully taught " in the original score but was cut before the first broadway production . it appears in the movie version as a duet for nellie and cable . it was reinstated for the 2002 london revival , for cable . " you 've got to be carefully taught " originally had several singing lines for emile following the conclusion of the lyrics for cable . revivals 20th century a limited run of south pacific by the new york city center light opera company opened at new york city center on may 4 , 1955 , closing on may 15 , 1955 . it was directed by charles atkin , and had costumes by motley and sets by mielziner . the cast included richard collett as emile , sandra deel as nellie , carol lawrence as liat , sylvia syms as bloody mary and gene saks as the professor . a second limited run of the same production with a different cast opened at city center on april 24 , 1957 , closing on may 12 , 1957 . it was directed by jean dalrymple , and the cast included robert wright as emile , mindy carson as nellie and hall reprising the role of bloody mary . that production was given again in 1961 , this time with ann and william chapman in the lead roles . there have been many stock or summer revivals of south pacific . one , in 1957 at long island 's westbury music fair , occurred at the same time that arkansas governor orval faubus was resisting the integration of central high school by the little rock nine . nellie 's pronouncement that she was from little rock was initially met with boos . logan refused to allow nellie 's hometown to be changed , so a speech was made before each performance asking for the audience 's forbearance , which was forthcoming . there were two revivals at lincoln center . richard rodgers produced the 1967 revival , which starred florence henderson and giorgio tozzi , who had been rossano brazzi 's singing voice in the 1958 film . joe layton was the director . the cast album was issued on lp and later on cd . the musical toured north america from 1986 to 1988 , headlined by robert goulet and barbara eden , with david carroll as cable , mcqueen as bloody mary and lia chang as liat , first directed by geraldine fitzgerald and then ron field . a new york city opera production in 1987 featured alternating performers justino díaz and stanley wexler as emile , and susan bigelow and marcia mitzman as nellie . a 1988 west end revival starred gemma craven and emile belcourt , supported by reading , among others , and was directed by roger redfern . it ran at the prince of wales theatre from january 20 , 1988 to january 14 , 1989 . 21st century a new production with slight revisions to the book and score was produced by the royal national theatre at the company 's olivier theatre in london for a limited run from december 2001 through april 2002 , timed to celebrate the centenary of richard rodgers ' birth . trevor nunn directed , with musical staging by matthew bourne and designs by john napier . lauren kennedy was nellie , and australian actor philip quast played emile , borrowing from the 1958 film , this production placed the first emile - nellie scene after the introduction of cable , billis and bloody mary . a british touring production of south pacific opened at the blackpool grand theatre on august 28 , 2007 . the tour ended at the cardiff new theatre on july 19 , 2008 . it starred helena blackman as nellie and dave willetts as emile . julian woolford directed , with choreography by chris hocking . this production was most noted for its staging of the overture , which charted nellie 's journey from little rock , arkansas , to the south pacific . on entering the theatre , the audience first saw a map of the u.s. , not the theater of war . a broadway revival of south pacific opened on april 3 , 2008 at lincoln center 's vivian beaumont theater . bartlett sher directed , with musical staging by christopher and associate choreographer joe . the opening cast starred kelli o 'hara as nellie , paulo szot as emile and matthew morrison as lt. cable , with danny burstein as billis and loretta ables sayre as bloody mary . laura osnes replaced o 'hara during her seven - month maternity leave , beginning in march 2009 , and also between january and august 2010 . szot alternated with david pittsinger as emile . the production closed on august 22 , 2010 , after 37 previews and 996 regular performances . with a few exceptions , the production received rave reviews . ben brantley wrote in the new york times : i know we 're not supposed to expect perfection in this imperfect world , but i 'm darned if i can find one serious flaw in this production . ( yes , the second act remains weaker than the first , but mr. sher almost makes you forget that . ) all of the supporting performances , including those of the ensemble , feel precisely individualized , right down to how they wear catherine zuber 's carefully researched period costumes . the production , with most of the original principals , was taped and broadcast live in hd on august 18 , 2010 on the pbs television show live from lincoln center . a production based on the 2008 broadway revival opened at the barbican theatre in london on august 15 , 2011 and closed on october 1 , 2011 . sher again directed , with the same creative team from the broadway revival . szot and welsh national opera singer jason howard alternated in the role of emile , with samantha womack as nellie , ables sayre as bloody mary and alex ferns as billis . the production received mostly positive reviews . a u.k tour followed , with womack , ables sayre and ferns . a u.s. national tour based on the 2008 revival began in san francisco at the golden gate theatre on september 18 , 2009 . sher directed , and the cast starred rod ( emile ) and carmen cusack ( nellie ) . the sher production was also produced by opera australia at the sydney opera house from august to september 2012 and then at princess theatre , melbourne through october 2012 . it starred teddy tahu rhodes as emile , lisa mccune as nellie , kate ceberano as bloody mary and eddie perfect as billis . the production then played in brisbane for the 2012 holiday season , with christine anu as bloody mary , and resumed touring in australia in september 2013 . reception and success critical reception reviewers gave the original production uniformly glowing reviews ; one critic called it " south terrific " . the new york herald tribune wrote : the new and much - heralded musical , south pacific , is a show of rare enchantment . it is novel in texture and treatment , rich in dramatic substance , and eloquent in song , a musical play to be cherished . under logan 's superb direction , the action shifts with constant fluency . ... [ he ] has kept the book cumulatively arresting and tremendously satisfying . the occasional dances appear to be magical improvisations . it is a long and prodigal entertainment , but it seems all too short . the rodgers music is not his finest , but it fits the mood and pace of south pacific so felicitously that one does not miss a series of hit tunes . in the same way the lyrics are part and parcel of a captivating musical unity . the new york daily mirror critic wrote , " programmed as a musical play , south pacific is just that . it boasts no ballets and no hot hoofing . it has no chorus in the conventional sense . every one in it plays a part . it is likely to establish a new trend in musicals . " the review continued : " every number is so outstanding that it is difficult to decide which will be the most popular . " the review in new york world - telegram found the show to be " the ultimate modern blending of music and popular theatre to date , with the finest kind of balance between story and song , and hilarity and heartbreak . " brooks atkinson of the new york times especially praised pinza 's performance : " mr. pinza 's bass voice is the most beautiful that has been heard on a broadway stage for an eon or two . he sings ... with infinite delicacy of feeling and loveliness of tone . " he declared that " some enchanted evening " , sung by pinza , " ought to become reasonably immortal . " richard watts , jr. of the new york post focused on mary martin 's performance , writing , " nothing i have ever seen her do prepared me for the loveliness , humor , gift for joyous characterization , and sheer of her portrayal of nellie forbush ... who is so shocked to find her early racial prejudices cropping up . hers is a completely irresistible performance . " when south pacific opened in london in november 1951 , the reviews were mixed . london 's daily express praised the music but disliked other elements of that show , writing , " we got a 42nd street madame butterfly , the weakest of all the hammerstein - rodgers musicals . the daily mail suggested , " the play moved so slowly between its songs that it seemed more like south soporific . " the times applauded the songs but indicated that " before the end the singing and the dancing have dwindled to almost nothing , while the rather sad little tale is slowly and conventionally wound up . " the manchester guardian , however , noted the anticipation in advance of the opening and concluded that " there was no disappointment ... the show bounces the audience and well deserves the cheers . " drama critic kenneth tynan of the spectator wrote that south pacific was " the first musical romance which was seriously involved in an adult subject ... i have nothing to do but thank logan , rodgers and hammerstein and climb up from my knees , a little cramped from the effort of typing in such an unusual position . " a 2006 review asserted : " many are the knowledgeable and discriminating people for whom rodgers and hammerstein 's south pacific , brilliantly co - written and staged by joshua logan , was the greatest musical of all . " in 1987 , however , john rockwell of the new york times reviewed the city opera production , commenting that while south pacific had been innovative for 1949 , " sondheim has long since transcended its formal innovations , and the constant reprises of the big tunes sound mechanical . in 1949 , south pacific epitomized the concerns of the day – america 's responsibilities in the world and the dangers of racism . ... at its 1967 state theater revival , the show struck many as dated . it still seems that way , with m * a * s * h having contemporized this same setting " . a 2008 huffington post review criticized the play as having an orientalist and western - centric storyline in which stereotypical natives take on " exotic background roles " in relation to americans , and it characterized the relationship between cable and liat as underage prostitution , charging that she " speaks not a word in the whole musical , only smiles and takes the yankee to bed . " south pacific is the only major american musical set in world war ii , but former marine robert leckie wrote his memoir of that conflict , helmet for my pillow , after he walked out of a performance : " i have to tell the story of how it really was . i have to let people know the war wasn 't a musical . " box office and awards south pacific opened on broadway with $ 400 , 000 in advance sales . people were so eager to obtain tickets that the press wrote about the lengths people had gone to in getting them . because " house seats " were being sold by scalpers for $ 200 or more , the attorney general 's office threatened to close the show . however , the parties who provided the scalpers with the tickets were never identified , and the show ran without interference . the production had a $ 50 , 600 weekly gross , and ran for 1 , 925 performances . the national tour began in 1950 and grossed $ 3 , 000 , 000 in the first year , making $ 1 , 500 , 000 in profit . the original cast album , priced at $ 4 . 85 , sold more than a million copies . the original production of south pacific won ten tony awards , including best musical , best male performer ( pinza ) , best female performer ( martin ) , best supporting male performer ( mccormick ) , best supporting female performer ( hall ) , best director ( logan ) , best book and best score . in 1950 , the musical won the pulitzer prize for drama , the second musical to do so after of thee i sing , which won in 1932 . rodgers became the first composer of musical comedy to win the pulitzer , as composer george gershwin had not been recognized for of thee i sing . the pulitzer prize was initially given only to rodgers and hammerstein ; logan was later recognized in an amended announcement , much to his annoyance . the 2001 london revival garnered a laurence olivier award for philip quast ( emile ) . the 2008 revival won seven tony awards , including best revival ( sher and szot also won , and the show won in all four design categories ) , and five drama desk awards , including outstanding musical revival . the late robert russell bennett was also honored that season for " his historic contribution to american musical theatre in the field of orchestrations , as represented on broadway this season by rodgers and hammerstein 's south pacific . " the 2011 london production received three olivier award nominations , including best musical revival , but won none . themes and cultural effect race part of the reason why south pacific is considered a classic is its confrontation of racism . according to professor philip beidler , " rodgers and hammerstein 's attempt to use the broadway theater to make a courageous statement against racial bigotry in general and institutional racism in the postwar united states in particular " forms part of south pacific ' s legend . although tales of the south pacific treats the question of racism , it does not give it the central place that it takes in the musical . andrea most , writing on the " politics of race " in south pacific , suggests that in the late 1940s , american liberals , such as rodgers and hammerstein , turned to the fight for racial equality as a practical means of advancing their progressive views without risking being deemed communists . trevor nunn , director of the 2001 west end production , notes the importance of the fact that nellie , a southerner , ends the play about to be the mother in an interracial family : " it 's being performed in america in 1949 . that 's the resonance . " from the early drafts , hammerstein and logan made the issue of racial prejudice central to the story . hammerstein repeatedly rewrote the act ii backstage scene where emile , nellie and cable confront the question of the americans ' racism . as critic robert butler pointed out in his educational companion to the 2001 london production , " if one young person has a prejudice , it might be a character flaw ; if two young people share a prejudice , it tells us something about the society in which they grew up " . in one draft , emile advises that the americans are no better than the axis powers , in their prejudice , and suggests they go home to sing songs about how all are created free and equal . lovensheimer states that a postwar american audience would have found such onstage sentiments to be offensive . in the staged version , emile 's expressions are limited to two lines arguing that prejudice is not inborn . at the heart of this scene is cable 's song " you 've got to be carefully taught " , in which cable realizes the sources of his own racism . its frank lyrics made it perhaps the most controversial element of the show . michener recalled in his memoirs that a delegation of new englanders had approached him after a new haven tryout and urged him to recommend the song 's removal to rodgers and hammerstein . when michener told hammerstein , he laughed and replied , " that 's what the show is about ! " boston drama critic elliot norton , after seeing the show in tryouts , strongly recommended its removal , or at least that cable sing it less " briskly " , as there was much bigotry in boston ; logan replied that that was all the more reason for leaving it unaltered . several new york reviewers expressed discomfort with the song ; wolcott gibbs wrote of " something called ' you 've got to be taught ' , a poem in praise of tolerance that somehow i found a little embarrassing " while john mason brown opined that he was " somewhat distressed by the dragged - in didacticism of such a plea for tolerance as ' you 've got to be taught ' " . after the broadway opening , hammerstein received a large number of letters concerning " you 've got to be carefully taught " . judging by the letters that remain among his papers in the library of congress , the reaction was mixed . one correspondent wrote " what can i say to a man who writes , ' you 've got to be taught to hate and fear ? ' ... now that i know you , i feel that my informants didn 't praise you enough . " nevertheless , another wrote , " i feel the inclusion of the song particularly in the album and to some extent in the show itself is not helpful to the cause of brotherhood , your intent to the contrary notwithstanding " . when the tour of the show reached a racially segregated theatre in wilmington , delaware , rodgers and hammerstein threatened to cancel the performances there unless seating was integrated , which it was . in 1953 , with the tour in atlanta , there was controversy over " you 've got to be carefully taught " . two georgia state legislators , senator john d. shepard and representative david c. jones , objected to the song , stating that though south pacific was a fine piece of entertainment , that song " contained an underlying philosophy inspired by moscow " , and explained , " intermarriage produces half - breeds . and half - breeds are not conducive to the higher type of society . ... in the south , we have pure blood lines and we intend to keep it that way . " they stated that they planned to introduce legislation to outlaw such communist - inspired works . the northern press had a field day ; hammerstein , when asked for comment , responded that he did not think the legislators were representing their constituents very well , and that he was surprised at the suggestion that anything kind and decent must necessarily originate in moscow . in part because of the song , touring companies of south pacific had difficulty getting bookings in the deep south . in the final scene of act i , nellie rejects emile because of his part - polynesian children . in so doing , nellie fails to live up to the american ideal that " all men are created equal " , which emile had earlier affirmed . this scene was also toned down by hammerstein ; in early drafts , nellie , initially unable to force out a word to describe emile 's first wife , after he supplies the word " polynesian " , responds with " colored " . this pronouncement , which makes nellie less sympathetic as a character , was restored for the 2008 lincoln center production . as frank rich of the new york times commented , " it 's upsetting because nellie isn 't some cracker stereotype – she 's lovable ... but how can we love a racist ? " most argues that even emile is tainted by racism , as his lifestyle is dependent on the maintenance of a system whereby he benefits from underpaid native labor – bloody mary is able to attract workers to make grass skirts for sale to gis because , as she puts it , " french planters stingy bastards ! " sex and gender roles nellie forbush , in her journey from little rock , arkansas , to serving as a navy nurse and on to the domesticity of the final scene of south pacific , parallels the experience of many american women of the period . they entered the workforce during the war , only to find afterwards a societal expectation that they give up their jobs to men , with their best route to financial security being marriage and becoming a housewife . one means of securing audience acceptance of nellie 's choices was the sanitization of her sexual past from her counterpart in the michener work – that character had a 4 - f boyfriend back in arkansas and a liaison with bill harbison while on the island . the male characters in south pacific are intended to appear conventionally masculine . in the aftermath of world war ii , the masculinity of the american soldier was beyond public question . cable 's virility with liat is made evident to the audience . although billis operates a laundry – nellie particularly praises his pleats – and appears in a grass skirt in the " thanksgiving follies " , these acts are consistent with his desire for money and are clearly intended to be comic . his interest in the young ladies on bali h 'ai establishes his masculinity . lovensheimer writes that billis is more defined by class than by sexuality , evidenced by the seabee 's assumption , on learning that cable went to college in new jersey , that it was rutgers ( the state 's flagship public university ) , rather than ivy league princeton , and by his delight on learning that the rescue operation for him had cost $ 600 , 000 when his uncle had told him he would never be worth a dime . meryle secrest , in her biography of rodgers , theorizes that south pacific marks a transition for the pair " between heroes and heroines who are more or less evenly matched in age and stories about powerful older men and the younger women who are attracted to them " . lovensheimer , however , points out that this pattern really only holds for two of their five subsequent musicals , the king and i and the sound of music , and in the former , the love between anna and the king is not expressed in words . he believes a different transition took place : that their plots , beginning with south pacific , involve a woman needing to enter and accept her love interest 's world to be successful and accepted herself . he notes that both oklahoma ! and carousel involve a man entering his wife 's world , curly in oklahoma ! about to become a farmer with expectations of success , whereas billy bigelow in carousel fails to find work after leaving his place as a barker . lovensheimer deems allegro to be a transition , where the attempts of the lead female character to alter her husband joe 's world to suit her ambition lead to the breakup of their marriage . he argues that the nurse emily , who goes with joe in his return to the small town where he was happy , is a forerunner of nellie , uprooting her life in chicago for joe . secrest notes that much is overlooked in the rush to have love conquer all in south pacific , " questions of the long - term survival of a marriage between a sophisticate who read proust at bedtime and a girl who liked dinah shore and did not read anything were raised by nellie forbush only to be brushed aside . as for the interracial complexities of raising two polynesian children , all such issues were subsumed in the general euphoria of true love . " lovensheimer too wonders how nellie will fare as the second madame de becque , " little nellie forbush from arkansas ends up in a tropical paradise , far from her previous world , with a husband , a servant , and two children who speak a language she does not understand " . cultural effect a mammoth hit , south pacific sparked huge media and public attention . south pacific was one of the first shows for which a variety of souvenirs were available : fans could buy south pacific neckties , or for women , lipstick and scarves . fake ticket stubs could be purchased for use as status symbols . there were south pacific music boxes , dolls , fashion accessories and even for use after washing men from hair . martin 's on - stage shower prompted an immediate fashion craze for short hair that could be managed through once - a - day washing at home , rather than in a beauty salon , and for the products which would allow for such care . the songs of south pacific could be heard on the radio , and they were popular among dance bands and in piano lounges . mordden comments that south pacific contained nothing but hit songs ; rodgers and hammerstein 's other successful works always included at least one song which did not become popular . the cast album , recorded ten days after the show 's opening , was an immediate hit . released by columbia records , it spent 69 weeks at # 1 on billboard and a total of 400 weeks on the charts , becoming the best - selling record of the 1940s . it was one of the early lp records , with a turntable speed of 33 ⅓ rpm , and helped to popularize that technology – previously , show albums and operas had been issued on sets of 78 rpm records , with high prices and much less music on a single disc . in the years to come , the lp would become the medium of choice for the " longhair " music niche of show , opera and classical performances . an indirect effect of the success of the show was the career of james michener . his one percent of the show as author of the source material , plus the income from a share which the duo allowed him to buy on credit , made him financially independent and allowed him to quit his job as an editor at macmillan and to become a full - time writer . over the next five decades , his lengthy , detailed novels centering on different places would dominate the bestseller lists . music and recordings musical treatment the role of nellie forbush was the first time with hammerstein that rodgers made the leading female role a belter , rather than a lyric soprano like in oklahoma ! and julie in carousel . according to mordden , " nellie was something new in r & h , carrying a goodly share of the score on a ' broadway ' voice " . nellie does not sing together with emile , because rodgers promised martin that she would not have to compete vocally with pinza , but the composer sought to unite them in the underlying music . a , heard before we see either lead , is played during the instrumental introduction to " dites - moi " , the show 's first song . considered as pitch classes , that is , as pitches without characterization by octave or register , the motif is c - b - a - g. it will be heard repeatedly in nellie 's music , or in the music ( such as " twin soliloquies " ) that she shares with emile , and even in the bridge of " some enchanted evening " . lovensheimer argues that this symbolizes what nellie is trying to say with her act ii line " we 're the same sort of people fundamentally – you and me " . originally , " twin soliloquies " came to an end shortly after the vocal part finishes . logan found this unsatisfying and worked with trude rittmann to find a better ending to the song . this piece of music , dubbed " unspoken thoughts " , continues the music as nellie and emile sip brandy together , and is called by lovensheimer " the one truly operatic moment of the score " . " this nearly was mine " is a big bass solo for emile in waltz time , deemed by rodgers biographer william g. hyland as " one of his finest efforts " . only five notes are used in the first four bars , a phrase which is then repeated with a slight variation in the following four bars . the song ends an octave higher than where it began , making it perfect for pinza 's voice . two songs , " i 'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair " and " honey bun " are intended to imitate american popular songs of the 1940s . in the former , the triple recitation of the song title at intervals suggests a big band arrangement of the wartime era , while in the bridge , the final eight bars ( repeating the lyrics from the bridge 's first eight bars ) gives a suggestion of swing . the sections beginning " if the man don 't understand you " and " if you laugh at different comics " have a blues style . lovensheimer deems the song " nellie 's spontaneous and improvisatory expression of her feelings through the vocabulary of popular song " . mordden suggests that " i 'm in love with a wonderful guy " with its " take no prisoners bounce " , might well be the center of the score , with the typical american girl defending her love by spouting clichés , many of which , such as " corny as kansas in august " hammerstein made up , and " sure enough , over the years they have become clichés " . recordings columbia records recorded the overture and most of the songs from the original production in 1949 , using members of the cast including ezio pinza and mary martin . drawing from the original lacquer disc masters , columbia released the album in both the new lp format and on 78 - rpm discs . soon after sony acquired columbia in 1988 , a cd was released from the previously unused magnetic tape recording from the same 1949 sessions in new york city . the cd includes the bonus tracks " loneliness of evening " ( recorded in 1949 by mary martin ) , " my girl back home " ( martin ) , " bali ha 'i " ( pinza ) and symphonic scenario for concert orchestra ( original orchestrations by robert russell bennett ) . according to critic john kenrick , the original cast recording " is the rare stuff that lasting legends are made of " , an essential classic . the original cast album was added to the national recording registry in the library of congress on march 21 , 2013 for long - term preservation . the film soundtrack was released on the rca victor label in march 1958 . kenrick calls the recording " mixed up " and does not recommend it . masterworks broadway released a recording of the 1967 lincoln center production starring florence henderson as nellie , giorgio tozzi as emile , justin mcdonough as cable and irene byatt as bloody mary . the recording includes a version of " bali ha 'i " , sung in french by eleanor , the liat . according to kenrick , " every track of this 1967 lincoln center cast recording is such a winner that you can 't help wondering why it took so long for this winner to make its way to cd . " kenrick notes that the album is a more complete alternative to the original cast album . in 1986 josé carreras and kiri te kanawa made a studio recording of south pacific , the sessions of which were filmed as a documentary , similar in style to leonard bernstein 's successful west side story documentary a year earlier that featured the same stars . emile 's music was transposed to fit carreras 's tenor voice . the recording also featured sarah vaughan as bloody mary and mandy patinkin as cable . stephen holden reviewed the album in the new york times , " the star of this south pacific isn 't any individual , but rather the score itself " . kenrick calls the recording badly miscast " pretentious trash . " kenrick gives mixed praise to the 1988 london revival cast album . the 2001 royal national theatre 's revival cast album was recorded in 2002 on first night records with philip quast as emile , lauren kennedy as nellie , edward baker - duly as cable , sheila francisco as bloody mary and nick holder as billis . the album includes the cut song , " now is the time " . while kenrick allows that most critics like the recording , he finds it a waste of money . the 2005 carnegie hall concert version was released on april 18 , 2006 by decca broadway with reba mcentire as nellie , brian stokes mitchell as emile , lillias white as bloody mary , jason as cable and alec baldwin as billis . kendrick describes this recording as " one of the most ravishing that this glorious rodgers & hammerstein classic has ever received " and " a show tune lover 's dream come true . " the 2008 broadway revival cast album was released on may 27 , 2008 by masterworks broadway . kenrick finds it " very satisfying " . film and television versions south pacific was made into a film of the same name in 1958 , and it topped the box office that year . joshua logan directed the film , which starred rossano brazzi , mitzi gaynor , john kerr , ray walston and juanita hall ; all of their singing voices except gaynor 's and walston 's were dubbed . ravenscroft , later television 's tony the tiger , sang the basso notes in " there is nothing like a dame " . the film opened with cable 's flight to the island in a pby , followed by the seabees ' beach scene , and added billis ' rescue and scenes from the mission to spy on the japanese . the film won the academy award for best sound . it was also nominated for the oscar for best scoring of a musical picture ( alfred newman and ken darby ) , and the 65 mm todd - ao cinematography by leon shamroy was also nominated . the film was widely criticized for its use of color to indicate mood , with actors changing color as they began to sing . the film includes the song " my girl back home " , sung by cable , which was cut from the stage musical . the movie was the third - highest - grossing film in the u.s. of the 1950s ; its uk revenues were the highest ever , a record it kept until goldfinger in 1963 . although reviewers have criticized the film – time magazine stated that it was " almost impossible to make a bad movie out of it – but the moviemakers appear to have tried " – it has added success on television , videotape and dvd to its box office laurels . a made - for - television film , directed by richard pearce , was produced and televised in 2001 , starring glenn close as nellie , harry connick , jr. as cable and rade as emile . this version changed the order of the musical 's songs ( the film opens with " there is nothing like a dame " ) and omits " happy talk " . " my girl back home " was filmed but not included in the broadcast due to time constraints ; it was restored for the dvd , issued in 2001 . the last half - hour of the film features scenes of war , including shots of segregated troops . lovensheimer states that the film returned to the michener original in one particular : " harry connick jr . ' s joe cable is a fascinating combination of sensitive leading man and believable leatherneck " . the movie and close were praised by the new york times : " ms. close , lean and more mature , hints that a touch of desperation lies in nellie 's optimism . " the review also commented that the movie " is beautifully produced , better than the stagy 1958 film " and praised the singing . kenrick , however , dislikes the adaptation : " you certainly won 't ever want to put this disaster in your player , unless you want to hear the sound of rodgers and hammerstein whirling in their graves . glenn close is up to the material , but her supporting cast is uniformly disastrous . a pointless and offensive waste of money , time and talent . " a 2005 concert version of the musical , edited down to two hours , but including all of the songs and the full musical score , was presented at carnegie hall . it starred reba mcentire as nellie , brian stokes mitchell as emile , alec baldwin as billis and lillias white as bloody mary . the production used robert russell bennett 's original orchestrations and the orchestra of st. luke 's directed by paul . it was taped and telecast by pbs in 2006 and released the same year on dvd . the new york times critic ben brantley wrote , " open - voiced and open - faced , reba mcentire was born to play nellie " ; the production was received " in a state of nearly unconditional rapture . it was one of those nights when cynicism didn 't stand a chance . " kenrick especially likes mitchell 's " this nearly was mine " , and praises the concert generally : " this excellent performance helped restore the reputation of this classic " .