'South Pacific' Opens in Melbourne

The red carpet was in danger of wearing out at the Melbourne opening of South Pacific last night. Patrons were greeted on Spring Street by Polynesian dancers and drummers as they entered the Princess Theatre.

Rumours abound of a cast romance, a factor that will help affect a successful box office. But this production needs no such thing to attract the hordes.

Eddie Perfect, Daniel Koek and Teddy Tahu Rhodes

Sometimes one goes to a show and decides it is worth it on the weight of one element alone. But here I find there are so many elements to recommend buying a ticket.

One patron (Robin Nevin no less) was overheard describing Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ rich sonorous voice as being ‘like thunder’. Perhaps. But I was thinking earthquakes, and yes, the earth did move for me, darling. What a presence.

Lisa McCune, greeted with spontaneous applause as she graced the stage, was astonishing as she leapt, pivoted and even cartwheeled about the stage like a spring chicken.

Eddie Perfect was. Continue reading

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South Pacific Launch
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South Pacific: Its Tahu Rhodes, McCune, Ceberano, and Perfect

It’s a cast with impressive credentials, not to mention serious box office pulling power.

In Melbourne’s Plaza Ballroom this morning (Monday 30^th April) prolific producer John Frost and Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini were on hand to announce the Australian cast for the Lincoln Center Theatre Production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.

The Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne’s Collins Street is a lavish space for a big announcement. There were in fact two of them. And with Orchestra Victoria on hand and ‘celebrity media ‘in attendance, it promised a great deal.

It’s a dream cast, supremely talented and bound to draw a crowd. But this event was more than a cast announcement, impressive as it was.

‘This is a launch not only of South Pacific,’ said Chief Executive of Opera Australia Adrian Collette, ‘but of this partnership with the Gordon Frost organisation because we intend over the coming years to produce some of the great classical musicals that have been written with the highest musical values, the highest theatrical values, and partnering with John [Frost] …our sustaining commerciality.’

Colette continued, ‘For Opera Australia this is all about throwing open our doors and engaging with the broadest possible audience we can through the length and breadth of Australia …. We know that by engaging with this extraordinary musical, at the highest possible level, we will engage a much broader audience.’

But it didn’t end there. Continue reading

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