Physical description

Bendigo Operatic Society White Paper Cover Black & White Text Programme Booklet Production 'South Pacific' Opening 10th August 1962 for six nights. Does not state where performed. With the permission of Chappells Ltd Bendigo Operatic Society presents 'South Pacific.' A Beatrice Oakley Production. Music & Lyrics Rogers & Hammerstein II. Book Hammerstein II & Joshua Logan. Musical Director Mr Max O' Loghlen. South Pacific's plot 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. South Pacific focuses 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. Cast: Ray Austin, John Boromeo, Ruth Lyon, Carol Crane, Roger Sprawson, Patricia McCracken, John Stephens, Patricia Lyon, Kenneth Nicholls, Victor White, Alfred Annison, Brain Whetstone, Fred Trewarne, Peter Houston, John Gow, Ian Beckwith, Gerry Gleeson, John Reed, Roy Cronin, Reginald Boromeo, Len Carr, Denis Cremen, Daryl Walker, George Steele, Barry Washington, Joan Crane, Dawn Beckwith, Annette Wilson, Emily Houston, Jill Angwin, Carole McKenzie, Greta Smyth, Rhonda Scott, Lorraine Brennan, Mary Speedy, Katherine Alexander, Bronwen Townsend, Ferd. Lorenz. Songs Include: ''Bali Hai'', ''I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy,'' ''Younger Than Springtime,'' ''This Nearly Was Mine,'' '' Some Enchanted Evening,'' ''There is Nothing Like a Dame,'' ''I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,'' and many others.

Inscriptions & markings

Arthur Hocking Press.