SHN (Shorenstein Hays Nederlander) announced that the classic wartime musical has been added to its Best of Broadway season, while the pre-Broadway premiere of the new musical Ever After, which was to play the Curran Theatre, has been indefinitely postponed.
As previously reported, Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher confirmed to Playbill.com that he would reprise his directorial work for the national tour of South Pacific. Sher noted that the challenge would be to adapt the expansive Vivian Beaumont Theater production in order to accommodate the proscenium stages that are more common on the road.
"Those spaces are different, and the show will expand and contract in a different way," Sher stated. "Strangely enough, a bulk of our set is in that upstage area, and when you pull down you lose that intimacy you gain from the thrust area, but it's definitely possible to do it and have it look as gorgeous as it does in the Beaumont."
In a statement SHN President Carole Shorenstein Hays said, "SHN is privileged to present Lincoln Center's celebrated Tony Award-winning new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. Lincoln Center is the country's most prestigious producing organization, setting the national standard for artistic excellence. There is no better enduring partner for SHN. We have nurtured the national tours of Lincoln Center's Contact and The Light in the Piazza, and we look forward to reuniting with our colleagues from Lincoln Center and hosting the entire creative team for South Pacific."
In a joint statement Lincoln Center Theater artistic director Andre Bishop and executive producer Bernard Gersten added, "We couldn't be more pleased to be opening the national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific at the Golden Gate Theatre. After the great success we've had there with our productions of Contact and The Light in the Piazza we consider San Francisco, with its theatre-savvy audiences, to be our lucky city. We look forward to coming back and working once again with SHN on this new production." Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories "Tales of the South Pacific," the musical focuses on French plantation owner Emile de Becque and his love interest, Nellie Forbush, a naïve young nurse from Arkansas.
The Lincoln Center Theater production has musical staging by Christopher Gattelli, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Scott Lehrer. The revival features the musical's original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and dance and incidental music arrangements by Trude Rittmann.
No casting has been announced for the South Pacific tour.
Based on the 1998 film, the new musical Ever After features a score by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler, with a book by playwright Theresa Rebeck and Heisler.
For season tickets and further information visit www.shnsf.com.
