Customer Reviews

South Pacific (2001 Television Soundtrack)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I can understand Glenn Close wanting to do the part of Nellie. It's a great part and fun to play, with great songs. After seeing her effort though I think she could get away with it onstage, but NOT in a film. She's a good actor and a decent singer but on film she looks too old for the part, especially in closeup. Since this was her project, why didn't she choose to do this show as a limited run on Broadway? There she could have done the part handsomely, and gotten away with playing a younger woman.

The rest of the cast was a real disappointment too. The actor playing Emile looked just right...but when he opened his mouth to sing "Some Enchanted Evening" I walked out of the room. This part was written for an operatic baritone, not a small character tenor. Harry Connick is a great musician whom I deeply admire but though he looks right for the part he does not sound or act like someone from a mainline Philadelphia family, which is what the character of Cable is. He made no effort to hide his working class New Orleans accent, and his singing...well, these songs were written for a legitimate Broadway low tenor, not a baritone jazz singer with a limited vocal line. The actor playing Billis had a good idea for a new interpretation of the character but was just too annoying to listen to. The actress playing Mary looked just right, more like the way Mary should look than Juanita Hall did, but she got caught up in the mannerisms of the character and lost all believability. And why, oh why cut the character's best songs?

I was under the impression that the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization had very strict control over the way the material they own is used. How they could give permission for this travesty is beyond me!

I am curious as to what some people are thinking sometimes. I was already apprehensive when I heard they were going to make a new TV movie out of "South Pacific" because, having played de Becque in the past, I know that the show is dated and that they would try to do something drastic to change that. Did they ever!

First, hearing that Glenn Close was playing the young, lovesick nurse, Nellie I began to wonder if they were going to put de Becque in a wheelchair hooked up to an IV. With all due respect to Ms. Close (and I do think she is a wonderful performer) there is no excuse for casting a 55 year old woman in a 25 year old character. I thought she did the best she could but it just wasn't right at all.

Rade Sherbedgia looked almost exactly how I picture de Becque to look like, but it ended right there. His acting was bland and uninteresting and his singing was unmotivated and boring. Anyone can make a song sound pretty, but when you are singing the song for that reason alone, you lose the whole meaning of why you are singing the song.

Oh, boy. Where to start on Harry Connick, Jr.? I thought he started out very well. His acting was genuine and focused, but he seemed to weaken very quickly. After he met Liat I feel that he just became very lackluster and contrived. I also know that he is a jazzy/bluesy singer, but "Younger Than Springtime" should not be a crooning song and "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" CANNOT be spoken and general. "Springtime" is possibly the most popular love song in musical theatre history and it needs to have a purpose and be sung with all your heart and soul. "Carefully Taught" is incredibly controversial and deep and CANNOT be spoken and done in such a matter-of-fact manner. It is angry and determined.

Robert Pastorelli gave a new spin to Billis and I think it worked in many aspects but didn't in quite a few as well. Lori Tan Chinn was a very funny Bloody Mary, but she began to play a character instead of a real person.

I am also very upset that many song orders were changed, a WHOLE LOT of added and subtracted dialogue, the first meeting between Nellie and de Becque should not be shown, the omission of "Happy Talk" and many others. I just think it is a shame to blatantly tamper with a Pulitzer Prize winning work. Yes, some aspects don't work on screen, but then drop one or two things but don't butcher and rework the entire piece to fit your vision because that was not the playwright's intentions. Why mess with a classic?

First of all, I would like to expess that South Pacific is one of the greatest musicals, in my humble opinion. And Also my school is doing a production of South Pacific this year as well. After seeing the original movie, I thought it'd be great to see a modernized version of it; unfortunately, i was rather dissapointed. Singing in this version, is not really singing at all, but rather just talking in tones. Glenn Close, who is a magnificent actress, just simply cannot act and/or sing like a ditzy nurse when she's nearing her sixites or somewhere close. and the gentleman who played Emile, his voice is the opposite of what Emile DeBecque really should have been... a rich and strong baritone. He barely sang above mezzoforte and he sang high most of the time with no richness. Personally, I am much younger than he, and I can sing that part tenfold times better than he did. Perhaps the only song that was not massacred was Harry Connick Jr.'s "Younger Than Springtime", which was my personal favorite. Though acting was great, the music is way sub-par levels and does an injustice to Rodgers and Hammerstein. If it was the actual movie, the rating would be higher, but since this is just music...(not really exceptional music at that)... it can't get a high rating. The music form the earlier renditions are MUCH MUCH better.

.

Oh my, what happened to the music in this adaptation of South Pacific--the mood, the tone, the sounds that immersed you and made you yearn for more as in the movie on which this adaptation was based!! How could the producers glaringly omit Happy Talk? Shame on them!! What a delightful piece to choose to omit! Frankly, I must admit that it angers me every time this happens. I heard that 'time constraints' were a factor. Also, be aware that many of the songs are out of their usual placement. I find this practice irritating. When listening to the CD we are listening to a story. The songs can't carry the story along as we listen when they have been moved. I also noticed many songs and interludes unfortunately were shortened. The interweaving of the many melodies, a technique used in previous recordings, was for the most part missing in this score. Too bad, because those melodies were gorgeous and set a tone that is sorely missing from this recording.

The choral singing was done very well, but what happened to the soloists? None were up to the task with the possible exception of Glenn Close who has a fine voice, reminiscent of Mary Martin. But, she just couldn't convey that feeling of sounding like a 'young' Cockeyed Optimist. Several years younger she would have been great. Her songs all had a sound of too much maturity. Harry Connick's interpretation of the wonderful Younger Than Springtime was way off. His was not the beautifully moving and poetic song. It was merely ok. Bloody Mary was just dreadful, unlike Jaunita Hall who sang so wonderfully in the movie. (Yes, she was dubbed but sang the role on Broadway.) Frankly, I found this Bloody Mary's singing 'annoying'. This Emile gave it a yoemans try but just did not have that wonderfully operatic voice that the role requires.

This CD did not capture that lush, enchanting feel that South Pacific so richly deserves. The movie score may have been dubbed with the exception of Gaynor, but, oh my, what a job they did with setting the wonderful tone and mood of the music and carrying it throughout the entire score. I really wanted to like this South Pacific score, but I didn't come away wishing for more. If you haven't listened to the movie or Broadway score or a Master Recording you may be satisfied. If you want to be immersed in and enchanted by the music that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote, take a listen to the movie score. (Broadway or Master Recording, too) You'll hear Bali Ha'i calling you. I wish I had heard it listening to this adaptation of South Pacific.

She was brilliant as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. As Nellie Forbush, Glenn Close is close to ending her career. The cast recording of the made-for-TV musical---like the movie itself--- lifeless and lackluster, with stars Harry Connick Jr. and Close, especially, sounding very much wilted leis. Some enchanting evening? More like a fatal attraction.

I can understand Glenn Close wanting to do the part of Nellie. It's a great part and fun to play, with great songs. After seeing her effort though I think she could get away with it onstage, but NOT in a film. She's a good actor and a decent singer but on film she looks too old for the part, especially in closeup. Since this was her project, why didn't she choose to do this show as a limited run on Broadway? There she could have done the part handsomely, and gotten away with playing a younger woman.

The rest of the cast was a real disappointment too. The actor playing Emile looked just right...but when he opened his mouth to sing "Some Enchanted Evening" I walked out of the room. This part was written for an operatic baritone, not a small character tenor. Harry Connick is a great musician whom I deeply admire but though he looks right for the part he does not sound or act like someone from a mainline Philadelphia family, which is what the character of Cable is. He made no effort to hide his working class New Orleans accent, and his singing...well, these songs were written for a legitimate Broadway low tenor, not a baritone jazz singer with a limited vocal line. The actor playing Billis had a good idea for a new interpretation of the character but was just too annoying to listen to. The actress playing Mary looked just right, more like the way Mary should look than Juanita Hall did, but she got caught up in the mannerisms of the character and lost all believability. And why, oh why cut the character's best songs?

I was under the impression that the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization had very strict control over the way the material they own is used. How they could give permission for this travesty is beyond me!

It would be very easy for me to completely blast this made-for-TV version soundtrack. However, I'm not (completely). True, Glenn Close is too old to play Nellie and Harry Connick Jr. seems oddly out of place in his role as Cable. However Rade Sherbedgia saves the day as Emile. Rade sings with heart, even though his voice is rather weak... kind of like a whisper actually. I was moved by his renditions of Some Enchanted Evening and This Nearly Was Mine. Glenn Close has a decent voice, kinda like Mary Martin's but with an edge. My biggest gripe though is the balance between the singing and accompaniment. The orchestra seems to at times drown out the singers. A better job of mixing was in order. Though this new recording can no way replace the Broadway and movie versions (by a long shot), it is a rather queer addition to have whenever you're in the mood for.... say something different?

Let me begin by saying I absolutely love South Pacific. It was the very first musical I ever saw (my parents took me to the movie when it came out, when I was hardly more than an infant) and I grew up listening to the Broadway sound track.

I like Harry Connick Jr., I've been impressed by Glen Close's work, I think Robery Pastorelli is a pretty decent comic actor, and when I saw the "Making of South Pacific" promo on TV, I made a point of setting my VCR to catch the movie. I was ready to really enjoy this show.

And boy, was I let down. First of all, no matter how good she looks, Glen Close does not look like a young nurse. She doesn't even look like a middle aged nurse. In her scenes with Rade Sherbedgia, despite all the soft focus photography (and half of this movie looked like it was shot through a pound of vaseline) she didn't look anything like a young woman swept off her feet by an older man. To tell the truth, she looked like Sherbedgia's mother.

But what makes or breaks a great musical is the singing. Both the Broadway and the original Hollywood versions of this movie were characterized by great voices. The part of Emile de Becque was played on Broadway by Ezio Pinza, and on the screen sung by Giorgio Tozzi, both strong and expressive baritones with an operatic background. The ingenue leads were the great Mary Martin and Mitzi Gaynor. Even the smaller parts were played by dynamic performers like Broadway's Juanita Hall, whose "Bali Hai" sends chills down your back.

But these TV version is completely lacking in anything approaching a dynamic vocal performance. Connick, a pretty good singer, does a workmanlike job with "Younger Than Springtime" and then delivers a half-spoken, half sung and essentially emotionless version of "You've Got To Be Taught". Sherbedgia, who has some of the strongest songs in the show, can barely produce a whisper. When Pinza sang "This Once Was Mine" it brought tears to your eyes; when Sherbedgia sings it, it's incidental music. It's almost as if the entire cast were picked so as not to show up the limited vocal abilities of the star.

All in all a tremendous disappointment. Even if you liked the TV version- especially if you liked it- you owe it to yourself to buy the Broadway album and hear this music as it was meant to be heard.

South Pacific is my favorite musical, and always has been. I already have the original cast stage recording starring Mary Martin, but I wanted to add the original movie soundtrack starring Mitzi Gaynor, which is really my preferred version.

Unfortunately the Amazon affiliate I ordered from made a mistake and sent me this one instead, otherwise, based on poor reviews here, I would never have ordered it. So I though I would show an open mind and give it a spin anyway, but was sorely disappointed right from the get-go and had not even got halfway through the CD, before I was impelled to remove it from the disc drive. I then gritted my teeth and played it all the way through so that I could write a review.

The orchestration is weak, Glenn Close is mediocre as Nelly Forbush, and Harry Connick is really, really feeble in the lead role as Lt. Joe Cable. Quite honestly I did not realise what a weak singer he is until I heard this. I think maybe I could do as well. Rade Sherbedgia as Emile sounds like a second-rate attempt to mimic Maurice Chevalier, but without the charm.

The singing of Bali Hai (in which Juanita Hall's vocals are is so beautifully overdubbed by Muriel Smith in the movie version) was so-so, and to add insult to injury one of my favorite songs, Happy Talk, is omitted altogether.

I very rarely write such a negative review, but clearly if you want a good recording of South Pacific, either the movie soundtrack or the original cast albums are the way to go. I have also listened to the Reba McIntyre version, but in my opinion her whisky-and-cigarettes voicings are quite unsuited to the ingenue role of Nelly.

Perhaps I am a little harsh. After all this album contains plenty of enjoyable listening, but I am assuming that the point of reading reviews is to determine what is the best purchase, and the fact is that this is only a television soundtrack and that it is in competition with two of the most beloved of all stage and screen soundtrack recordings.

If you listened to this without knowing who the performers were, you would just think that it was a cheap cover version.

So even if copies of this are available so cheaply as to be almost free, it is probably worth while to fork out a few dollars more to get one of the definitive versions, parts of which are so beautiful they will bring tears to your eyes. I would get the movie soundtrack.

If you only want one version of "South Pacific", go for the Broadway cast recording. This one has its merits, but it falls short. Glenn Close handles her parts quite well and is the saving grace of this CD. Most other aspects of the recording are disappointing. The worst mistake, I think, was the inclusion of the altered, muted versions of several numbers, including the title theme.