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| Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: aleck 09:41 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - bmc 02:08 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| Here's a video of the entire original London production of South Pacific -- with Mary Martin and Wilbur Evans. Even discounting the quality of the video/audio, the sets look so privative (look for those traveler scenes), the staging is stiff and, frankly, I didn't care for Mary Martin in it. The Lincoln Center production with Kelli O'Hara is how I want to remember South Pacific. But maybe there are other opinions of this complete record of the original South Pacific since I assume the London production replicated the original Broadway production. |
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| Link | Original London South Pacific -- complete |
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| re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 12:35 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
| In reply to: Original London South Pacific production -- complete - aleck 09:41 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| Though it is a valuable documentation, I would not judge the experience of seeing the show live in NY by this video. Mary Martin is the only original cast member, she and the cast are performing as though there is an audience in the house (there isn’t) and not with the intimacy of the camera in mind, plus, as Logan said in his autobiography, Martin felt pressured to live up to her performance’s legendary status and had lost much of her spontaneity. I’d still love to have seen it in NY. |
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| re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:50 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete - TheOtherOne 12:35 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
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| The other thing to remember is that after Logan had restaged some things a bit for the national tour because he felt that the tour performers were different and sometimes adjustments in the staging worked better for those people, Rodgers and Hammerstein forbade him from working on the London production. It was staged as a replication of the Broadway production, but without the creativity that Logan might have been able to instill. Nonetheless, Muriel Smith is quite good, I think, and it's a fascinating document. Interestingly in the London video, she belts "Bali Ha'i," which is not how she does it on the film soundtrack. On the partial London cast recording, her performance is rather in between the live performance and the performance on the film soundtrack. Also, the staging of "Bali Ha'i" is totally brilliant as far as I'm concerned. |
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