John Hall - Musical Theater and Opera Archive

History

UCLA is proud to offer this new production of South Pacific as the University’s first event in the American Revolution Bicentennial Festival. Although the actual bicentennial year remains two years away, the Festival begins immediately and, hopefully, will continue long after 1976.

South Pacific was selected as exemplary of the great American musical, certainly this nation’s finest native-born contribution to the world’s theatrical art forms.

The American Revolution Bicentennial Commission (ARBC) was established by a Joint Resolution of the 89th Congress on July 4, 1966. The Commission was given a mandate to prepare an overall program commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the American Revolution and the nation’s birth.

Specifically, Congress directed the ARBC to plan, encourage, develop and coordinate observances and activities commemorating the historic events that preceded, and are associated with, the American Revolution, and that vitalize the continued growth and application of the principles on which the nation was founded.

The goals of the Bicentennial are to forge a new national commitment, a new spirit for ’76, a spirit that revitalizes the ideals for which the Revolution was fought: a spirit that will unite the nation in purpose and in dedication to the advancement of human welfare as the United States moves into its third century.

The American Bicentennial symbol is derived from the stars, stripes and colors of the flag of this nation. The symbol takes the form of an American five-pointed star in white, surrounded by continuous red, white and blue stripes that form a second star. This double star is symbolic of the two centuries that have passed since the American Revolution.

UCLA sincerely hopes that this production of South Pacific, and future events, will contribute significantly to American’s celebration of the Bicentennial and to achievement of the Bicentennial Commission’s goal.

Letter from Charles E. Young:

Welcome to this special presentation of UCLA’s inaugural American Bicentennial Festival event.

We are grateful to Giorgio Tozzi, Sandra Deel, Mokihana, and the other outstanding professionals who have joined our students and staff in staging this exciting experiment in musical theatre. We hope it is but the first of many such ventures, leading to a permanent American Musical Theatre Repertory Company at UCLA.

As an archive, as a stimulus to further refinement of this uniquely American art form, and as a learning laboratory for emerging talent, the possibilities for such a company are limitless. We hope you who have already shown an interest, and many more to come, will give this project your full support. The results, I know, will be rewarding.

Charles E. Young
Chancellor

“South Pacific” – 25 Years of Milestones and Musical History

Envy the person who was fortunate enough to be around that night. It was April 7, 1949, and Broadway throbbed with excitement as a new musical received its christening.

Could Rodgers and Hammerstein outdo their achievements in the two previous rave shows Oklahoma! And Carousel? Most wondered. The prospects were tantalizing, to say the least.

So were the out-of-town reports from the Shubert in New Haven. South Pacific – that was the name of the new show – was destined to be a smash.

The times were most congenial to South Pacific’s theme, as well as its music. Nearly four years had passed since the last gun had been silenced in the great-conflict-to-end-them-all. World War II, to the majority, was far enough removed to still the pain, certainly the menace. And the next battle, the first international police action, was still a year away.

A forceful, stubborn little former haberdashery salesman from Missouri had just been inaugurated President of the United States after a nation had reckoned him destined for defeat at the polls. Once more, the improbable had become history.

Terrifying signs loomed as well. Enrico Fermi had achieved the first sustaining nuclear reaction in 1943. Two years later, Hiroshima exploded in a tremor that shrunk the world and spread a fear that few could ignore.

The world was anxious: the Soviet Union set off its first nuclear bomb in 1949. The United States Senate ratified the NATO Treaty. World War III was not beyond imagination.

So into this postwar, prewar, standoff peace came South Pacific, arriving with the theatrical tension of a drama, American style, and some of the most singable tunes ever brought to the stage. Your Hit Parade was aglitter with most of them.

The people of South Pacific became household words as news of the new musical spread. Nellie Forbush, a naïve American Navy nurse finds herself on a south sea island formerly controlled by the French, now inhabited by Seabees. She meets and falls in love with Emile de Becque, a widowed French planter with two children. His plantation is on that island. A young naval officer, Lt. Joseph Cable, falls in love too – with a beautiful girl names Liat, a native of the nearby island of Bali Ha’i. (It is not presumptuous to observe that Liat’s mother, the colorful and doughty Bloody Mary, was an entirely capable matchmaker for the two. What is a mother to do? Any mother?)

The musical excitement was supreme: those marvelous lyrics and melodies that have become classics whether one ever has stepped into a theater or merely snapped on a radio or phonograph.

Romance: “Some Enchanted Evening.” “A Wonderful Guy.” “Younger than Springtime.”

Exotica: “Bali Ha’i.”

Controversy: “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” (even before most protested racial segregation, or noticed that it existed.)

Finally, a most discomfiting state of affairs, mandatory celibacy: “There Is Nothing Like a Dame.”

South Pacific came abut in rather “back door” fashion. The occasion was a dinner party in 1947, when Kenneth MacKenna, story editor for MGM, remarked to Jo Mielziner and Joshua Logan that he had just read, but turned down, Michener’s book of World War II stories for screen treatment.

Nevertheless, he urged Logan to consider using the volume as a vehicle for the stage. Logan and Leland Hayward, his co-producer for Mister Roberts, then set about to secure Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for this mammoth Broadway achivement. For this must be a musical.

In creating their book for the stage, however, Logan and Hammerstein used only two of Michener’s “tales.” Our Heroine tells of Nellie Forbush and de Becque, and Fo’ Dolla relates the tale of Cable and Liat.

South Pacific’s original production included one of the most exciting casts ever assembled: Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush, Ezio Pinza as de Becque, William Tabbert as Cable, Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary and Betta St. John as Liat. It became second only to Oklahoma in its run on Broadway – 1,925 performances. More than 3.5 million theatergoers paid nine million dollars at the box office. And the play gathered virtually every award around, including the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Drama Critics, Antionette Perry (TONY) and Donaldson Awards as the year’s best musical.

More than two million copies of the sheet music were sold, and sales of the long playing original recording reached a million discs. South Pacific even became a licensee for such items as dolls, dresses, lingerie and cosmetics.

South Pacific is familiar to theatergoers in all the major European capitals, and in the United States, and it indeed has become a classic through the many touring companies and productions. One of its most significant revivals took place in 1967 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center in New York, when Florence Henderson and Giorgio Tozzi recreated Nellie and de Becque.

The motion picture, made in 1958 with Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, Juanita Hall, John Kerr and France Nuyen, was immensely popular in this country and set new box office records in England. It was once estimated that by calculating the enormity of the profits from this musical, each of the original investors received a return of more than 1,600 per cent on his money.

But it is more than high grosses, an anniversary-to-be-marked or 1940s nostalgia that has persuaded creation of this sumptuous new production of South Pacific.

The musical is offered at this time, as UCLA’s first Bicentennial production, because it has meaning for today’s audiences. War is terribly unpopular in the ‘70s, yet the story of love continues to flourish and grow.

How is the love of Nurse Forbush and Emile de Becque, Lt. Cable and Liat amid the fear of the common enemy of 1945 so very different from the love each of us finds, and cherishes, while scandal and the nuclear bombs of small nations burst around us.

Surely this is the year of South Pacific’s spirit. If ever there were one. – Dick Houdek

Alumni

South Pacific Illustrious Alumni

Don Fellows, Dick Button, Don Corby, Stan Page, Jack Knight, John Felton and Tom Laughlin. What do they all have in common?

Why, of course, each is a former Lt. Buzz Adams in one of the many productions of South Pacific. Fellows was the very first, in the original 1949 edition; Laughlin portrayed Adams in the screen version made in 1958 by 20th Century-Fox.

Now try this list on your memory: Janet Blair, Sandra Deel, Mindy Carson, Allyn Ann McLerie, Betsy Palmer, Florence Henderson, Kathleen Nolan, Nancy Dussault, Cloris Leachman, and Mitzi Gaynor. Obviously, the only name missing from this illustrious set of Nellie Forbushes is the original, America’s great star of musical comedy, Mary Martin.

All of these are what are known in the South Pacific family as alumni, those who have appeared at least once in this favorite of American musicals.

Recently a nucleus of the alumni met at the UCLA Amphitheater to discuss the possibility of honoring South Pacific alumni everywhere with an evening set aside for them. The committee included Sandra Deel, tonight’s Nellie Forbush, the original Ensign Janet MacGregor and the New York City Center production’s Nellie in 1955; Janet Blair, Nellie in the original national company;Mokihana, tonight’s Bloody Mary, as well as in other editions of the show; John Kerr, Lt. Cable in the film; Harvey Lembeck, Billis in the 1957 City Center revival; Larry Hageman, Yeoman Quayle in the original London production; France Nuyen, Liat in the film, and Richard Eastham, the first national company’s de Becque.

Their choice for alumni evening was July 12, 1974, at the same Amphitheater. And consider the possibilities for a guest list:

In addition to the late Ezio Pinza whose memory will be honored that night, and Eastham, other de Becques have included Roger Rico, Wilbur Evans, Richard Collett, Robert Wright, William Chapman, Ray Middleton, Jerome Hines, Rossano Brazzi, and, of course, Giorgio Tozzi, who also appeared on the best selling recording of the City Center Production with Florence Henderson.

The Bloody Marys have numbered among their prestigious lot Juanita Hall, Diosa Costello, Sylvia Sims, Rosetta La Noire, Honey Sanders, Irene Byatt, Muriel Smith and Martha Larrimore. And don’t forget tonight’s Bloody Mary, Mokihana, who reigns today as the world’s preeminent impersoantor of this role.

Rounding out the casts are the lovers Cable and Liat, William Tabbert and Betta St. John in the original production, Herb Banke and Carol Lawrence in the 1955 New York production, Allen Case and Imelda De Martin in the 1957 City Center revival, Stanley Grover and Coco Ramirez (New York, 1961), Richard Armruster and Eleanor A. Calbes (N.Y., 1965), Justin McDonough and Miss Calbes again (N.Y., 1967), Richard Fredricks and Sarah Jane Smith (1968), Nolan Van Way and Miss Smith (1969) and John Kerr and France Nuyen in the 1958 film.

Biographies

Giorgio Tozzi

Giorgio Tozzi, Emile de Becque, has played this widely acclaimed role nearly every summer since the 1957 West Coast South Pacific Production, in which he starred opposite Mary Martin. His is the voice heard on the soundtrack album which won him a Gold Disc from RCA Victor. Tozzi’s repertoire includes more than 100 roles of all descriptions – from musical comedy to powerful dramatic performances. His musical comedy apperance in St. Louis with his wife Monte Amundsen in The Most Happy Fella marked their first together since The Great Waltz. He received accolades from the critics for his outstanding vocal and dramatic portrayal of Cervantes and Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Tozzi is equally revered to opera fans around the world. He scored great success in his portrayal as Hans Sachs in Die Meister-singer at the Hamburg State Opera. As King Philip in Don Carlo and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, he won great critical acclaim. Tozzi’s first appearance as the death-haunted Russian czar, Boris Godunov, over NBC-TV Opera more than a decade ago created a sensation, resulting in repeated viewings of the original show. He is also renowned for his roles of Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Don Ruy Gomez de Silva in Ernani, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and Don Giovanni. Tozzi launched his opera career in Milan, Italy during the post World War II years, making his debut as Count Rodolfo in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, then later Colline at the Teatro Nuovo. The Chicago-born basso sang on opening night at La Scala in December 1953 in Catalini’s opera La Wally with Renata Tebaldi in the title role, and Mario del Monaco. Since his Metropolitan Opera debut as Alvise in La Gioconda, Tozzi has sung with the Met virtually every season. A popular guest on television talk shows, he has appeared on The Tonight Show, Dick Cavett, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin. RCA, London and Cetra Records carry Tozzi’s works on many full-length recordings. He has also recorded the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and Berlioz’ Romeo et Juliette and L’Enfance du Christ.

Sandra Deel

Sandra Deel, Nellie Forbush, became the youngest Rockette in the history of Radio City Music Hall at age 15. Now a stage and television veteran, Sandra has a co-starring role in Needles and Pins, the new Screen Gems Comedy series. She made her film debut as the “other woman” in Junior Bonner with Steve McQueen and Ida Lupino. On the theater realm, she co-starred on tour with Eddie Albert in Miss Liberty. The Grey-Eyed People opposite Walter Matthau on Broadway marked her first straight dramatic starring role. Subsequently came starring roles in South Pacific at New York’s City Center, Peter Pan at St. Louis’ Municipal Opera, Annie Get Your Gun, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Girl Crazy and a reprise of Miss’ Liberty at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. As standby for Elaine Stritch in Company, the Tony-award-winning musical, Sandra played four performances in New York and nine in Los Angeles. She elicited strong critic praise for her role in No, No Nanette in the National Company. A night club tour featured Sandra at leading spots across America and Canada, including the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas. CBS Television teamed Sandra and Johnny Desmond five days a week in Face the Music. Six months later Joshua Logan personally selected Sandra to portray Ensign Janet McGregor in South Pacific, and during this period Sandra also made four appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and was guest star on Studio One and Robert Montgomery Presents. In addition she portrayed Carl Reiner’s wife for one year on The Sid Caesar Show.

Mokihana

Mokihana (Moki), known as Hawaii’s own Bloody Mary, created the role of Opua in Aloha Hawaii, her first appearance on stage in spring of 1960, with great success. Mervyn LeRoy discovered Moki and cast her in The Devil at 4 O’clock with Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy and Jean Pierre Aumont. Since then she has become renowned for her characterization of Bloody Mary in Monte Prosser’s marathon run of South Pacific in Las Vegas and in many important musical theaters around the country. Moki also has appeared in Flower Drum Song, Kiss Me Kate, and Tea House of the August Moon, and she made her Broadway debut two years ago in Heathen. Moki’s television credits include all major Hawaiian shows. She became virtually a daily listening institution during her long association with the Arthur Godfrey radio show.

Akemi Kikumura

Akemi Kikumura (Liat), won a featured role in Republic Studios’ The Nun and the Sargeant at age 11. As an authority on interracial marriage, she appeared on NBC’s Expressions: East-West and on CBS’ Noon-time. Miss Kikumura was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to coordinate a graduate program in ethnic studies, specifically inter-marriage among the Japanese Americans in Los Angeles County for UCLA. At Las Vegas’ Thunderbird Hotel, she performed as singer-dancer in Flower Drum Song. She has made a commercial for Poloroid Sunglasses and has modeled at McDonnel Douglas, Broadway Plaza and the ABC Entertainment Center. Miss Kikumura is currently enrolled in the Master-Ph.D. program in anthropology at UCLA, while studying acting and dancing with East-West Players.

James Gleason

James Gleason (Luther Billis), has performed in numerous motion pictures, among them, As you Like It, Star Spangled Girl, My Fair Lady, Flea in Her Ear, Comedy of Errors, Skin of Our Teeth, J.B., Streetcar Named Desire, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, A Man for All Seasons and A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Mr. Gleason’s special talents include singing, dancing, gymnastics plus New York, Southern and Cockney dialects.

William Bruce

William Bruce (Lt. Cable), portrayed a featured role, The Boy, in the ABC Monday Night Television Special Fol De Rol with Ann Sothern. He understudied three roles in the Los Angeles production of Godspell at the Ivar Theater and has appeared in many college productions. He most recently portrayed the role of Janos in The Scarlet Mill, Eugene Zador’s opera in English, presented by the UCLA Opera Theater and directed by John Hall.

Tom Wheatley

Tom Wheatley (Brackett), is a veteran of Broadway, having appeared in All the Way Home and Shadow of a Gunman. Off Broadway he was seen in Ping Pong and The Cat and the Canary, and he also has appeared with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, the ACT in San Francisco and the recent production of The Threepenny Opera at the Huntington Hartford Theater. He portrayed the Minister in the television series “The Young Rebels” and has made several films. A former teacher at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, Mr. Wheatley is part of the UCLA Theater Arts faculty.

Don Saroyan

Don Saroyan, managing director and former UCLA graduate student, returns to the University bringing with him his experience as program coordinator for TV’s popular Laugh In show and producer of the Rowan and Martin Summer Tours. For six years Mr. Saroyan acted as production manager for this comedy team on their personal appearances and was associate producer on Rowan and Martin specials. Mr. Saroyan also served as producer at the Circle Arts Theater in San Diego and has performed in numerous musicals and night clubs throughout the United States.

John Hall

John Hall, stage director, manages to juggle careers as performer, director and teacher, while completing his doctorate in historical musicology at UCLA. He has toured nationally with the Roger Wagner Chorale and has been bass soloist with Mr. Wagner and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Last summer he opened the Sante Fe Opera season as Alcindoro in La Boheme. Upon joining the UCLA Opera Theatre staff, he produced the revival of Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. His production of Cesti’s Orontea, which he also translated and directed, was selected for a tour of the five University of California campuses. This year his production of The Scarlet Mill by Eugene Zador received wide critical acclaim. His translations of Poulenc’s Chansons Populaires have been published by Editions Salabert and are scheduled for release this fall.

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert, artistic director, has sung major roles with all the leading West Coast opera companies including The Los Angeles Guild Opera under Carl Ebert’s direction, the Los Angeles Opera, The Seattle Opera, The Honolulu Symphony (with Dorothy Kirsten and Barry Morrell), The Pasadena Opera (with Richard Tucker and Placido Domingo), The Laguna Opera, and the UCLA Opera Theatre. His acting credits, ranging over a ten-year period on Broadway include leading roles in South Pacific, Most Happy Fella, Finian’s Rainbow and Three Penny Opera. A member of the UCLA Opera staff, Mr. Gilbert is currently stage director and director of the Musical Comedy Workshop.

Peter Matz

Peter Matz, musical director, is the musical director for The Carol Burnett Show on CBS-TV. Mr. Matz was arranger-conductor for NBC’s The Kraft Music Hall, the first two Barbra Streisand specials, two Lily Tomlin specials, and the hour-and-a-half television versions of Of Thee I Sing and Once Upon a Mattress. On Broadway he conducted Noel Coward’s Sail Away and Richard Rodgers’ No Strings, which along with House of Flowers, Hallelujah Baby and Jamaica had orchestrations by Mr. Matz as well. On recordings, Mr. Matz has been arranger-conductor for Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Kate Smith, Chicago, Joel Grey, and Liza Minnelli, among others. Peter Matz wrote original scores for the motion pictures Bye Bye Braverman, Marlowe, Rivals, and for the television films Larry, Love Story and I Heard the Owl Call My Name. He is at present arranger-conductor for the forthcoming film A Very Funny Lady, starring Barbra Streisand. Mr. Matz was graduated from UCLA and studied music at the Ecole Narmale in Paris and with Wallingford Riegger and Lennie Tristano.

Alison Gail Bixby

Alison Gail Bixby received her BA in art and her MFA in theatre arts from UCLA, and since her graduation in 1970, she has designed costumes for The Lark at Loyola-Marymount College, Walt Whitman, an Encyclopedia Britannica film, three operas for City of the Angels Opera and costumes for Carol Neblett in the New York City Opera production of La Traviata. She also has worked with the UCLA Opera Theater and Workshop for the past three years, creating costumes for its productions of Orontea, Queen of Egypt, Les Huguenots and the West Coast premiere of The Scarlet Mill.

Archie Sharp

Archie Sharp, designer of scenery and lighting, created sets for 10 years for many television productions including Newlywed Game, Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show, The Mickey Finn Show, Game Game Show and Name Droppers. As art director, Mr. Sharp’s free-lance specials include Sound of Children – Debbie Reynolds, Trini Lopez Special, Peggy Flemming at Sun Valley, Peggy Flemming in Europe and Hallmark Special, Love, as well as hundreds of commercials. Mr. Sharp also created the set for Oliver Hailey’s Who’s Happy Now?, presented in its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and had earlier designed the sets for The Sea Gull for The Theatre Group at UCLA. He has designed sets for several UCLA Opera Theater productions, including Les Huguenots and Falstaff.

South Pacific - 1974

History

Musical Numbers

Cast

Alumni

Orchestra

Biographies

Credits

Photographs