'South Pacific' can enchant PBS viewers

Current economic realities have placed Broadway musicals out of reach for many, but PBS gives them the Great White Way at its greatest as "Live From Lincoln Center" presents the Tony-winning production of "South Pacific" Wednesday at 8 on WNET/13.

Airing just days before the show - the longest-running Broadway revival of any Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ever - ends its two-year run on Sunday, the telecast reunites original cast members Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot as Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque, the French planter with whom she falls in love. Their story is juxtaposed against the love affair of Airman Joe Cable and a native girl, Liat, with both couples' happiness threatened by the specter of racial prejudice.

PRAISE FOR THE DIRECTOR

In fact, director Bartlett Sher, who won a Tony for his staging, earned kudos for the way he zeroed in on the theme of bigotry and intolerance at the heart of the show. That element also became a cornerstone in making O'Hara's Nellie into something far more complex than merely a perky ingénue who falls in love with a sexy Frenchman.

"One of the things about Bart that is so wonderful is the way he really focuses in on the people themselves, to show how Nellie has this naiveté because of the way she has been raised," says Tony nominee O'Hara. "She's very childlike in the way she falls in love so easily, but from here on out, you have no idea what she is going to learn, because you feel like she has that capacity to accept new things, because she does that right in front of your eyes during the three hours of the show."

A LEAP OF FAITH

Sher took the biggest leap of faith in entrusting the role of Emile to Szot, a striking Brazilian-born opera baritone who never had appeared in a musical and for whom English was a third language, after Portuguese and Polish. Ultimately, he won unanimous raves and a Tony, but he admits he was scared to death at first.

"I was going to be among real actors, and I wanted to do it right," says Szot, whose English is now close to impeccable. "I didn't want to disappoint anyone. These guys were really trusting me and giving me this incredible chance. Even if I had been performing it in Portuguese, it would have been difficult, but in English? That was even harder."