“South Pacific,” winner of 10 Tony Awards, will open at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20, and is the first Broadway show to be staged at the Bicknell Center since “An American in Paris” on March 4, 2020.
The iconic work of theater premiered on Broadway in 1949 and was an immediate hit, running 1,925 performances. Composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein, it is based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book, “Tales of the South Pacific,” set during World War II.
With themes of romance, duty, prejudice and racism, it's a story that is heartbreaking, hilarious, and thought-provoking.
A nurse from Arkansas falls in love with a French plantation owner who has two children from his late Polynesian wife, and a lieutenant falls for an island native. Both Americans find themselves struggling to reconcile their own cultural prejudices with their feelings as the dark cloud of war comes ever closer to their tropical island paradise.
The beloved score’s songs include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame” amidst big, Broadway performances and a chorus of American sailors and Navy nurses ready to take you to Bali Ha’i.
Tickets: $39 to $72 based on availability. Call the PSU Ticket Office at 620-235-4536, visit www.bicknellcenter.com, or stop by the ticket office during business hours in Room 137 of the Garfield Weede Building.