PBS airs Broadway's Tony-winning 'South Pacific'

Economic realities have placed Broadway musicals out of reach for many Americans, but PBS gives them the Great White Way at its greatest as "Live From Lincoln Center" presents the Tony-winning production of "South Pacific" on Wednesday, Aug. 18.

Airing just days before the show - the longest-running Broadway revival of any Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ever - ends its 2½-year run on Aug. 22, 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 racial prejudice.

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 at the heart of the show, a motif that is given explicit voice in Cable's song "Carefully Taught." That element of the show also became a cornerstone in making O'Hara's Nellie into something far more complex than merely a perky ingenue 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 naivete because of the way she has been raised," says O'Hara, who earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance. "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.

"Bart really wanted to focus on the problems with race in the story, and in order to do that, I had to make Nellie more than just a one-note person. When you do the show, as many people often do, and just glaze over those topics, Nellie comes out as just a fun girl who sings fun songs and falls in love. But if you are going to concentrate on the racist issues which she is the epicenter of, she has to be more than just a racist, or no one is going to like her, obviously. Who is going to fight to earn her love at the end?"

That someone, of course, is Emile, and Sher took the biggest leap of faith in entrusting this starring role 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 Award as best actor in a musical, but he cheerfully admits that 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 close to impeccable by now. "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."

It helped enormously, he adds, that his leading lady was O'Hara, who also had trained in opera before starting her own successful career on Broadway a few years earlier. She knew what challenges faced Szot.

"They had seen so many opera and musical theater singers all across the board, and they found this kind of mysterious, incredibly handsome, much-younger-than-normal person to play the part," O'Hara recalls. "They all were taking a risk on this idea, but when you meet Paulo, there is just something so wonderful and generous and charming about him. I think he was very scared, to be completely honest. He knew what the challenge was, but I also think that he believed that just by being who he is, he was making something new. ... I can't imagine anyone else making better choices than he made to bring it to where it was."

In addition to winning the Tony and multiple other awards, the handsome Szot quickly became a bona fide matinee idol, making tourists and even jaded New Yorkers swoon, although he modestly insists they are charmed by Emile, not Paulo.

"Emile de Becque is such an iconic, masculine role, a guy who will overcome anything and everything to be with this girl," Szot says. "After he realizes that he doesn't have her anymore, he goes to try to save the rest of the situation on the island.

"There are nights when you are tired, but you think about all the people in the audience who are seeing the show for the first time, so you want to be at your best for them. So it means a lot when you receive these letters from people, or they wait backstage to see you afterwards. That makes it all worth it, and people have just been so sweet to me."

<p class="factboxheadblack">"South Pacific"</p>

<p class="News">Airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, on "Live from Lincoln Center" on WTTW-TV, Channel 11</p>