Suffield Player’s “South Pacific” filled with youth and joy

Three Stars

(one star is poor, two is fair, three is good, and four is excellent)

Location: Mapleton Hall, 1305 Mapleton Ave. Suffield.

Production: Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Directed by Frank P. Borrelli. Musical director George A. Garber Jr. Produced by Rob Lunde. Stage manager Mary Fernandez-Sierra. Assistant stage manager Chelsea Skawski. Technical direction and lighting design by Jerry Salewski. Costume design by Dawn McKay. Sound by Al LaPlant. Set design by Konrad Rogowski.

Running time: 3 hours, with a 15-minute intermission.

Show Times: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through May 22.

Tickets: $17, $15 for seniors and students. Call 1-800-289-6148 or visit their website at www.suffieldplayers.org.

ACTOR…CHARACTER

Stephanie Devine … Nellie Forbush

Rich Moran … Emile de Becque

Becky Rodia Schoenfeld … Bloody Mary

Shaun O’Keefe … Luther Billis

Danny Viets … Lt. Joseph Cable

Hal Chernoff … Cmdr. William Harbison

Mark Proulx … Capt. George Brackett

Zachary Gray … Stewpot

Erica Bryan … Liat

Michael Holt … Professor

Amy Rucci … Lead nurse

Andrew Holl … Lt. Buzz Adams

Laura Markis … Ensign Dinah Murphy

Grace Spelman … Ensign Janet MacGregor

Mary Roberge … Nurse

Bradshaw Mattson … Jerome

Kennedy Mattson ... Ngana

Daniel Candella … Henry

Tony Andruss, Daniel Candella, Timothy Glynn, Zachary Gray, Andrew Holl, Michael Holt … Seabees and sailors

SUFFIELD-It might be as corny as Kansas in August at times, but there’s nothing like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical “South Pacific,” playing at the Suffield Players through May 22.

The solid cast is lead by the perky Stephanie Devine who has a lovely clear voice, in the role of Nellie Forbush, that enthusiastic, wide-eyed optimist from Little Rock, Arkansas.

She falls for sophisticated Frenchman Emile de Becque, played by the capable Rich Moran, who possesses a lovely resonant voice along with a fine French accent.

The show’s plot centers on their love relationship, along with a secondary love interest between a youthful Princeton graduate, Lt. Joseph Cable, and Liat, an Island girl.

Danny Viets plays Lt. Joseph Cable, looking like a young Tom Cruise. He sings one of the most beautiful of all Oscar and Hammerstein’s songs, “Younger Than Springtime.” Viets has some genuine and beautifully authentic moments.

Although she has a small part, Erica Bryan who plays Liat is graceful and elegant, and she has a beautiful voice when she sings.

Set in the South Pacific on a U.S. Naval base on an island, the navy is trying to beat the Japanese. Cable, who is with the Marines, goes on an undercover mission to a key island with de Becque to find out where the Japanese are moving and intercept them.

Others in the excellent cast include Becky Rodia Schoenfeld as the islander Bloody Mary, who sells grass skirts and shrunken heads as souvenirs to the seabees and sailors. Rodia Schoefeld is terrific as the tough-talking entrepreneur who works as a matchmaker between her daughter, Liat, and Cable, singing the beautiful “Happy Talk.”

Also fine is Shaun O’Keefe as Luther Billis, the sailor who is also trying to work some angles and make some extra cash on the side. Billis has a good heart, and O’Keefe has a fine voice and strong stage presence too.

The stage at the Suffield Players is small for musical theater, but set designer Konrad Rogowski does a creative job making a multi-layered set, although the two side stages are a little high. I was a concerned that the actors might take a step too far and fall about 10 feet. They used the space underneath two more entrances, which made sense.

One of the nice things about the smaller theater is that the actors didn’t have to be miked to be heard. That is also credit to the orchestra, lead by Musical Director George A. Garber Jr.

The radio communications are remarkable, sounding authentically like how I would imagine the scratchy fading communications sounded during World War II, with sound by Al LaPlant.

The costumes are all fine and fit the time period of the play, although I think in World War II the women officers and nurses would have been in skirts, not pants.

Directed by Frank P. Borrelli, the actors moved comfortably on stage, but they could have used a choreographer during some of the musical numbers, where the movement feels stilted.

While the story is good, this musical is all about the terrific, timeless songs, in addition to those already mentioned, like, “Honey Bun,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “A Cockeyed Optimist,” “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and the exquisite mournful melody, “This Nearly Was Mine.”

Come away to your own special island in paradise and see The Suffield Players’ production of “South Pacific.”