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RSO's evolution continues with unique presentation of South Pacific

For its latest Shumiatcher Pop Series production, the Regina Symphony Orchestra is ready to unleash some classic Rodgers and Hammerstein but with a twist.

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For its latest Shumiatcher Pop Series production, the Regina Symphony Orchestra is ready to unleash some classic Rodgers and Hammerstein but with a twist.

The RSO will present South Pacific, in conjunction with Regina Summer Stage, on March 24. The norm for such a presentation would be the orchestra working its way through the impressive musical catalogue of the 1949 musical.

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But Gordon Gerrard, the RSO Music Director, decided to take the production a step or two further. In a recent interview, Gerrard explained how the concert arrangement came about.

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“It’s fantastic music. It’s somewhat of a new venture for the RSO because we’re taking an entire musical and putting it on stage. It’s just a concert — there’s no sets, no costumes, no props, just the music and the dialogue,” said Gerrard. “I’m pretty excited about it. I think that the classic musicals still resonate with people.”

What was the motivation to attempt such a concert?

“It’s something that’s been done in other places. In fact, a few orchestras in Canada have been doing South Pacific in concert and it seems to work particularly well,” said Gerrard. “And also, when you look at the underlying themes of South Pacific, it seems to resonate with the conversations we’re trying to start in our community.”

Oscar Hammerstein wrote the book, along with Joshua Logan, and the lyrics for South Pacific with Richard Rodgers providing the music. South Pacific ran for five years on Broadway, closing after 1,925 performances. It won 10 Tony Awards in 1950, including best musical.

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Based on James A. Michener’s 1947 book, Tales of the South Pacific — which won a Pulitzer Prize — the musical focuses on an American nurse based on a South Pacific island during the Second World War. She falls in love with a plantation owner but has difficulty accepting his mixed race children.

The plot also includes a U.S. lieutenant who becomes involved with a Tonkinese woman and is concerned that society will not accept the mixed relationship.

“I’m not sure a lot of people realize that when South Pacific first came about, there was quite a controversy about its treatment of anti-racism themes. People felt like there was no place for that on the Broadway stage but Rogers and Hammerstein were quite adamant that this needed to be part of their show. Here we are some 60 years later and it’s still something important for us to present,” said Gerrard.

Given the concert is a first for the RSO, Gerrard spoke about the biggest challenge of the production.

“It’s a lot of moving parts, that’s for sure,” said Gerrard. “When you take on something like this, often for a Pops (Series) show we book an artist and it’s usually one person who has done the show in many other places so it actually runs quite smoothly. We add the music and it all works whereas this production, there is an element of us producing it, which of course brings in more complicated efforts. It’s definitely worth it.

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“For us it’s kind of new and when you try something for the first time, we don’t have an established way of how to do it. We’ve been figuring out how this works for us but I’m pretty excited about it.”

Regina Summer Stage is the latest local organization to work with the RSO. Most recently, the University of Regina Chamber Choir and the Prairie Chamber Choir were part of the RSO Masterworks Series performance of Requiem on March 10.

For South Pacific, Regina Summer Stage will provide the chorus along with eight actors serving in supporting roles. Gerrard feels that it’s important to incorporate other Regina organizations into RSO events.

“That’s definitely something that was at the top of my list when I came here, to try and establish partnerships, in some cases continued partnerships, with other groups in the city. The orchestra is for our community so we’re always looking to find more opportunities to bring other groups into what we present,” said Gerrard.

The musical will feature Rochelle Kives as Bloody Mary, Jason Howard as Emile de Becque, Jillian Willems as Ensign Nellie Forbush and Aaron Hutton as Lt. Joseph Cable.

jdedekker@postmedia.com

twitter.com/ThePloughboy

South Pacific

• Regina Symphony Orchestra

• with Regina Summer Stage

• 8 p.m., March 24

• Conexus Arts Centre

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