STAGE REVIEW : A ‘PACIFIC’ LACKING IN CHEMISTRY

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals have been good to John Raitt for more than four decades. His bravura Broadway career began in the mid-1940s with starring turns in “Carousel” and “Oklahoma!” and he’s often returned to the duo’s classics in subsequent years.

That history kept expectations up around the imagined summit of Bali Hai when Raitt opened last weekend in Regional Repertory Theatre’s “South Pacific” (continuing through Sunday at the Forum Theater in Yorba Linda).

Does Raitt deliver as Emile de Becque, the mysterious Frenchman who falls for a young nurse amid lush Polynesian palms? Well, yes and no.

Raitt shows clearly that, after nearly 50 years on stage, he knows what he’s doing. His singing is still powerful, his acting always understated and at times persuasive. The audience loved Raitt, especially his curtain-call reprise of “Some Enchanted Evening,” done with vocal flourishes and the commanding body English of an old showman.

But his overall performance--especially the tone-setting first act--too often lacked resonance and enthusiasm. It had the disappointing air of a walk-through by a veteran who is unable to find much in the role to challenge.

Raitt’s natural gifts do result in some charming moments. The convivial humor he brings to De Becque’s parody of “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” (done with some girlishly silly hip shakes) is playful, touching and, more than any other scene, connects De Becque and sweetheart Nellie, played by Katie Jensen. And when he lets loose his potent baritone in numbers like “This Nearly Was Mine” or “Some Enchanted Evening,” Raitt puts the right stuff on display.

But where does it go in most of his scenes with Nellie? Despite Jensen’s hard-working efforts to be giddily romantic, there’s about as much passion and chemistry between these two as between a graying uncle and his post-pubescent niece.

Raitt’s De Becque has none of the faintly dangerous, decidedly provocative shading of other portrayals. He is, instead, a figure of genteel wisdom and dull goodness. That doesn’t give Raitt room to move, and he responds, for the most part, stiffly and without much imagination.

It also subverts the plot somewhat: the tale about love, battle and racism during World War II expects dramatic tension from De Becque, a shadow man and known murderer who may, or may not, help the Americans fight the Japanese. Raitt’s low-key approach does communicate De Becque’s righteously moral core, but ultimately it just isn’t forceful enough.

Jensen, by contrast, comes close to spinning out of control. A young actress who doesn’t hesitate to turn it up when things seem to need a blast of pure energy, she sings, acts and dances fervently, and her joyous excitement can’t help but be infectious. But this Nellie, after all the ingenue sportiness, is fairly shallow. When Nellie realizes De Becque’s children came from a mixed island marriage, she just shakes her pretty head and frowns for the briefest instant, not carrying the pivotal scene further. The underlying question of bigotry, central to the musical, is inadequately addressed.

Of course, “South Pacific” hits on the racism issue more directly with Lt. Cable (played by Larry W. Craig) and his disastrous love for Liat (played by Selina Chan), an island girl. There is conviction in Craig’s handling of the lieutenant’s internal struggle to overcome his own biases; and Chan, in what is basically a non-speaking part, is innocently sensuous and alluring. As her mother, the bawdy Bloody Mary, Jeanne Leytus is appropriately loud and obscene.

“South Pacific” is probably Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most atmospheric work. And director Howard T. Mango emphasizes the exotic at every opportunity, creating a sharp contrast between colliding cultures--the worlds of both the brash, nearsighted Americans and the native islanders are defined throughout.

The tropical ambiance owes much to Gil Morales’ set, a sort of triptych across the main stage and two side areas offering a beach with Bali Hai’s peaks on the horizon, a Navy commander’s office and a candle-lit bedroom. With its swatches of fertile greens, sandy tans and ocean blues, and the look of sea-worn wood and bamboo everywhere, it’s full of the right imagery. The waterfall, however, doesn’t cascade, but sprays like a faulty hose; it serves to subtract from the mood instead of adding to it.

‘SOUTH PACIFIC’

A Regional Repertory Theatre production. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Music by Richard Rodgers. Book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Directed by Howard T. Mango. With John Raitt, Katie Jensen, Jeanne Leytus, Larry Craig, Robert Tucker and Selina Chan. Set by Gil Morales. Choreography by Ray Limon. Lighting by Steven Craig. Costumes by the Theatre Company. Musical direction by Diane King. Plays today through Saturday at 8 p.m., with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Also plays Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Forum Theatre is at 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda. Tickets: $16. Information: (714) 779-8591.