I’m researching thermostatic valves and fixtures for the bathroom (we’ve got to be able to get them cheaper than the crack-smoking local supplier!) and I decided to put the ‘tube on actual live TV on the background, something we do only when staying in hotels. The guide showed that South Pacific was on, and while it’s not my most favorite musical, (I prefer the actors from the original stage recording) it does have some of the finest music of any musical, so I put it on.
But what is this??? It’s a television re-make with Harry Connick, Jr. (as Joe… sort of believable, but yet unbelievable that they managed to make a man so naturally pretty look so damn awful on screen) and Glenn Close. As Nellie. Seriously, Glenn Close! It’s not the age that bothers me… it’s that she’s not acting her age. She’s dumbed the part down as if she’s “acting” young and it comes across as totally stupid. Just change a few words and add a few pounds to Honey Bun and work with it. But Bali Ha’i? They cut it in half. And Some Enchanted Evening? One of the most beautiful songs of the American Theatre? Utterly destroyed. As painful as that Kristi Lee country-take on Lennon/McCartney on American Idol. In a world with so many wonderful tenors, I have no idea why they didn’t cast an Emile who could sing the part.
Some things are just sacred, people, and the MUSIC is what is sacred about South Pacific. The plot? No way, baby, have a field day. I’ve always hated that Joe gets killed (if not, he may recognize his idiocy and marry poor Liat, whose role is just to be used and abused, ’cause a white guy can’t marry a woman of color, can he? That alone is good enough reason to NOT use the original plot in this day and age.) So change that end. Let Joe live, play up an aged Nellie if you want to go that way (something I like, in theory), and have a big wedding at the end with Bloody Mary throwing the party!
Post a Comment