South Pacific, the New Broadway Cast Recording

This week, the new cast recording of the revival cast of South Pacific was released. In a somewhat surprising move, Barnes and Noble was given exclusive rights to release a version of the recording containing a few bonus tracks--a few orchestral tracks and one or two short reprises of songs. Any copies of the album bought anywhere other than Barnes and Noble (including, presumably, the Vivian Beaumont) is a shorter version of the album containing only twenty-six tracks.

The new CD sounds impeccable and immaculate. There are a couple of odd choices about when to include dialogue and when not to, but the overall sound is excellent and except for weak vocals from Sayre's Bloody Mary and Morrison's Cable (the latter of whom unfortunately does his number in the original key, though he is now singing it a half-step down in the theatre), it's well sung. Of all the Nellies I have heard on record (and there are at least ten of those) O'Hara's technique is second only to Kiri Te Kanawa, who is a less ideal Nellie for obvious reasons. Even Florence Henderson is not as solid as O'Hara. Szot also is in excellent voice and provides powerful vocals, and the orchestra sounds a little richer than in the theatre (there are apparently a few extra players). Fans of the production will be very happy with the disc.

The new recording is almost the polar opposite of the recent Carnegie Hall concert CD which has a lot of technical flaws, given the scant rehearsal time and the fact that it's culled from a live performance. Personally though, I find that recording much more effective, mainly because of McEntire and Stokes, but also, the messy, live quality makes it more theatrical and viscerally exciting.

On recording, I find O'Hara's performance endemic of the production: beautiful, expert, but too controlled and sophisticated. On the recording, even the children's laughter at the end of "Dites Moi" sounds unspontaneous. Without being able to see Szot, though his phrasing and singing is overall very strong, I found him a bit wooden. And even though there are more vocally effective Cables and Marys than Jason Danieley and Lillias White, I find them both far ahead of their counterparts in the current production. But obviously, this reflects how I feel about the productions in general, and I'm in the minority on not being head-over-heels in love with the revival, but even with my reservations I can say that it's well-done and sounds very good so I'm sure fans of the production will be happy to have this new recording.