Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre had a lot to live up to during its presentation of “South Pacific.”
As a writer, I am trained to be objective, but with “South Pacific,” it’s different. I’m forever biased toward the production put on by my high school theater company. My puppy-love interest at the time played the lead role of Ensign Nellie Forbush. To further cloud my neutrality, my best friend took on the secondary role of Lt. Joseph Cable.
The show is one I’ll never forget, and although intellectually I realized that subsequent viewings performed by professional companies were better, emotionally I held that long-ago show in my heart as the best version.
Until, that is, I watched Beef & Boards raise the standard of this show to an entirely new level. The performances by all involved were riveting, sublime and touching.
The tide of my opinion turned with the singing. Oh, that singing.
I grew up listening to the 1949 album featuring the original Broadway cast, including Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza. It was one of my mom’s most treasured albums, purchased nine years before the movie version starring Mitzi Gaynor.
It takes a special type of voice to evoke Pinza, and Robert Wilde delivered in his Beef & Boards’ debut as Emile de Becque. The seminal “Some Enchanted Evening” rarely sounded this heart-poundingly powerful.
Beef & Boards favorite Deb Wims has played the role of Nellie before, and that experience shone in an exuberant display of whimsy and vivaciousness as she bounced from scene to scene. Her “Twin Soliloquies” and crowd-pleasing “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” sent the crowd on its way to cheerfulness.
Playing Lt. Cable, Mickey Rafalski — a native Hoosier based out of New York — gave a sterling rendition of “Younger Than Springtime” in addition to a steady performance.
The cast worked magnificently together. Standouts included the wonderfully wacky Luther Billis, played by veteran Jeff Stockberger, who loved showing off the sailboat tattoed on his belly, and the effervescent Bloody Mary, whose happy shrieks were perfected by the grass-skirted Cynthia Thomas.
With the recent 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, “South Pacific” rung as true as ever. The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical captures life on two islands in the South Pacific during World War II. The musical tackles the issue of mixed-race romance; again, this is a topic still not out of touch today considering the nation’s racial unrest of the past year.
During a performance that flowed from start to finish, “South Pacific” proved to be even more enchanting than the rendition near and dear to my heart from all those years ago.
“South Pacific” plays at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, 9301 Michigan Road in Indianapolis, through Oct. 4.
