The South Pacific Companion
Maslon’s brilliantly sympathetic Sound of Music Companion (2007) is a tough act to follow, and sure enough, his similar treatment of one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most highly esteemed efforts doesn’t measure up. Still, South Pacific mavens shouldn’t grouse too much. Maslon illuminates the show’s sources as thoroughly as he did Sound’s, invaluably including chapter-by-chapter synopses of James A. Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific (1947) as well as plenty of exposition on the South Pacific campaign in World War II and the work of the Seabees in it. His placing of the show’s development and performance history in the context of its creators’ busy schedules is also keenly gratifying. He concentrates on the original Broadway production almost to the exclusion of the by-most-lights inferior movie version (which yet, Maslon points out, used two songs dropped before the Broadway opening), and his discussion of South Pacific’s antiracist political impact never gloats. So what’s to carp at? The uncorrected color of the movie-derived illustrations, shot through special filters during musical scenes, and inadequate typo correcting, that’s what. --Ray Olson