Tales of ‘South Pacific’

Jennifer K Mahal

Ask Amanda Watkins what it’s like to play Nellie Forbush to Robert

Goulet’s Emile de Becque and she will say “He’s a dream.”

Jody Ashworth, who plays Stewpot in the production of “South Pacific”

now at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, says he wishes he had a

chance to work with Goulet more directly. Their characters don’t

interact.

“He’s a lovely man, very generous,” Ashworth says.

This is Goulet’s second tour of duty as the French planter who falls

in love with an optimistic nurse from Little Rock during wartime. The

Broadway star -- and original Sir Lancelot in “Camelot” -- inhabited the

role during a 1987-88 tour, which stopped at The Center.

“He has more stamina,” says Watkins. “He gets through the show no

matter what.”

Among the songs he performs in this Richard Rodgers and Oscar

Hammerstein II affair are “Some Enchanted Evening” and an extended

version of “This Nearly Was Mine.”

Watkins, who has yet to see the Mitzi Gaynor movie or a production of

“South Pacific,” remembers a time when she sang her line and Goulet

forgot his.

“It was time for him to sing and he realized it late and said ‘Is that

a dog barking? I thought I heard a dog barking.’ The audience loved him

so much they stepped out of ‘South Pacific’ and started laughing, then

came back,” she said.

“South Pacific,” based on “Tales of the South Pacific” by James

Michener, tells two World War II love stories that are both touched by

prejudice. Watkins’ Forbush rejects Goulet’s de Becque when she realizes

he has two half-Polynesian children by a first wife. The second tale is

of Lt. Joe Cable, an engaged military man with a mission, and his love

for Liat, a Tonkinese girl. Cable will not marry Liat because of what his

folks in Philadelphia will think.

“Here was a show about guys who defend their country and freedom, but

the underlying current . . . while their bodies are free, their minds are

not,” Ashworth says.

The song “You’ve got to be carefully taught,” sung by Lt. Cable after

he sends his love away, underscores that theme.

The tragedy of Sept. 11 has brought the patriotic elements in the

musical to the forefront, cast members say. Both Watkins and Ashworth

said they have been touched by the veterans who have come to the show.

“I hate to use this phrase, but this musical lends itself to disaster”

Ashworth said. “The tragedy has brought out this country’s nationalism

and patriotism.”

FYI

WHAT: “South Pacific”

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: 8 p.m. today, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The 2 p.m. Saturday performance will be sign-language interpreted.

COST: $27.50-$62.50

CONTACT: (714) 556-2787 or www.ocpac.org