MEDIA KIT MEDIA RELEASE

“” heads North for Brisbane Season The TIMELESS musical SOUTH PACIFIC to feature a stellar Australian line-up:

Lisa McCune Daniel Koek

The first Lincoln Center Theater production to ever tour Australia, the breathtaking and lavish Rodgers & Hammerstein musical SOUTH PACIFIC will play at Lyric Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) from 27 December 2012. Acclaimed opera star Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Australia’s best loved and four time Gold Logie award-winning actress Lisa McCune and Australian star Daniel Koek head the stellar cast as Emile de Becque, Nellie Forbush and Lieutenant Joseph Cable.

This ground-breaking Broadway show, directed by , swept the 2008 Tony Awards and played to sold-out houses in New York for two and a half years before commencing a tour of the USA that continues today. A sellout London Season and UK tour followed and now this multi- award winning production comes to Australia.

“South Pacific is one of those rare musicals that was written immediately following actual events”, says director Barlett Sher. “It was written in 1949, as a response to the war. It’s almost like a national memory, an expression of survival, and for this reason it is a profoundly resonant show.”

“South Pacific is full of romantic and uplifting show-stoppers, but it also confronts the issues of mixed-race marriage, prejudice and tolerance,” says artistic director Lyndon Terracini. “South Pacific is a work which resonates with modern Australia in many ways. It is about our issues and our part of the world.”

The Australian season of SOUTH PACIFIC marks the coming together of Australia’s largest performing arts company, Opera Australia, with Australia’s largest commercial theatre producer, . The new partnership plans to present some of the finest works of the music theatre repertoire in forthcoming years and is delighted to be commencing with SOUTH PACIFIC.

“I am so thrilled to be co-presenting this stunning production of South Pacific with Opera Australia. One of my favourite Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, I first produced South Pacific in 1994 to great acclaim. This new production from the Lincoln Center Theater is really something quite extraordinary. Along with the fantastic cast we’ve assembled, I know this production will win over Australian audiences, just as it has done in New York and London”, says John Frost.

Considered one of the finest musicals ever written, the score includesSome Enchanted Evening, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and There is Nothin’ Like a Dame. With a cast of 40 and an orchestra twice the size of most musicals, this international hit and landmark production has played 4 weeks of Sold Out performances at Opera House, then Melbourne’s Princess Theatre for a strictly limited 10 week season, before beginning its 5 week engagement at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC from 27 December. An encore season for has just been announced for September 2013.

Director Bartlett Sher, winner of the 2008 Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for South Pacific has been described by NY Times as “one of the most original and exciting directors not only in American theatre but also in the international world of opera.” MEDIA RELEASE continued

Set on a tropical island during World War II, this is the sweeping romantic story of two couples, threatened by the realities of war. Nellie (Lisa McCune) is an American nurse on a US naval base on a remote island somewhere in the Pacific. Emile (Teddy Tahu Rhodes) is a French plantation owner. They fall in love but as Emile’s colourful past emerges, Nellie loses her nerve. It may be paradise but their world is still full of prejudice and racism.

The musical was written by Rodgers & Hammerstein and first performed on Broadway in 1949, based on the Pulitzer-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener. At the time of its writing, the musical resonated strongly with its American public, many of whom brought first- hand experiences of their own wartime life into the theatre – both as audiences and performers alike. The film version made in 1958 transformed the Pacific into a Hollywood technicolour fantasy, filled with movie idol faces that somewhat de-politicised the post-colonial tensions inherent in the story.

Throughout its 63 year history, the musical production of S outh PaCIFIC has been performed almost continuously in theatres around the world, including Australia. The opening night of the 2012 Melbourne season marks the 60th Anniversary of the first Australian performance, which was on 13 September, 1952!

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

Director Sound Designer Nellie Forbush Bartlett Sher Scott Lehrer Lisa McCune

Musical Staging Music Supervisor Emile de Becque Christopher Gattelli Ted Sperling Teddy Tahu Rhodes

Set Designer Music Director Lieutenant Joseph Cable Michael Yeargan Andrew Greene Daniel Koek

Costume Designer Lighting Designer Catherine Zuber Donald Holder

This production of SOUTH PACIFIC is based on the Lincoln Center Theater production first performed in New York on 1 March 2008

southpacificmusical.com.au/media MEDIA RELEASE continued

BRISBANE PERFORMANCE INFORMATION BOOKINGS

Esvening at 7.30pm Tickets from $79.90 PREVIEWS: December 27, 28, 29 QPAC OPENING NIGHT: January 2 136 246 January 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, www.qpac.com.au 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31 February 1, 2

Matinees: Wednesdays & Saturdays at 1.30pm December 29 January 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30 February 2

Matinees: Sundays at 3pm (except Sunday 30 December & Sunday 6 January at 1pm & 6pm) December 30 January 6, 13, 20, 27 February 3

Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Cnr Grey and Melbourne Streets, South Bank 4101

Running time: Approximately three hours with one twenty-minute interval.

Media Enquiries BRISBANE Cindy Ullrich, Publicity Manager Queensland Performing Arts Centre T: (07) 3840 7589 E: [email protected]