‘South Pacific’ Rises Again : Old-Fashioned OCC Production in Redesigned Theater Gives New Voice to Musical and Political Themes

Put aside the hype about Orange Coast College’s refurbished, repolished and redesigned Robert B. Moore Theatre.

Despite the $1.6 million spent upgrading the once-maligned auditorium, nobody’s likely to confuse the new Moore with those other elegant and/or intimate nearby arts edifices: the Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory.

At the same time, forget about the old OCC auditorium. This reviewer remembers a stifling 1973 summer night here for an OCC production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies.” Terrible place, but adventurous programming.

Twenty years later, it’s a wonderful place, with nostalgic programming. (And, praise be, air-conditioning.) Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” was the first musical in this house, which opened in 1956, so it seems appropriate to dust it off for the new-old Moore.

There’s a sense of the old-fashioned all through director Alex Golson’s staging, and you might be fully taken back 37 years if you stand outside the theater and look at the graceful Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired exterior lines of Richard Neutra’s original structure. This was how they built musicals and theaters back then.

The surprise is how the Moore’s 1993 acoustic design (including upper wall panels where balcony seats used to be) helps you hear “South Pacific’s” themes, both the musical and political ones.

The sound is bright, but not too bright, and possibly more supportive of the pit orchestra, conducted by musical director Alan Remington, than of the cast.

It’s impossible to tell, because it also may be a case of a cast with less-than-strong voices. In either case, the orchestra too often overwhelms the voices, and such sparkling and comic tunes as “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” (by Terri Mowrey’s Nellie) and “Happy Talk” (by Cristina Rabano’s Bloody Mary) are nearly lost in the mix.

At other times, the operatic power of the show’s most romantic songs--perhaps the ultimate of their kind--serve as a suitable christening of this auditorium-into-theater.

*

If you rent the video of Joshua Logan’s 1958 film version, or listen to the recording, that’s not Rossano Brazzi’s singing as Emile de Becque, the widowed and exiled Frenchman who is in love with innocent Nellie from Little Rock, Ark. (It’s actually Giorgio Tozzi’s voice.)

But at the Moore, it really is Nils Anderson singing his heart out on “Twin Soliloquies” and “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine.” Anderson’s Old World gentility is an ideal match for the lively Mowrey. It shows what can happen when you have a world war in the Pacific; you might have some world love along with it.

That’s the center of Hammerstein’s and Logan’s book, based on James A. Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific.” But there’s something more.

The depiction of American soldiers’ encounter with the Pacific island people is usually remembered in the Shangri-La-like sounds of “Bali Hai” (the kitchiest scene in this production, complete with shaky ballerinas under the direction of choreographer Marie de la Palme).

When the loves between both Nellie and Emile and Lt. Cable (a forthright Daniel J. Combs) and Bloody Mary’s daughter Liat (a dutiful Catherine Oloresisimo) are torn apart by those who fear anyone of a different race, a 1993 audience can almost hear Rodney King in the background, pleading for us to all get along.

Golson’s cast seems aware of this, which is why Combs’ delivery is so vital on Cable’s anthem on the source of racism, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.”

That it is Cable’s examination of his own racism that makes the core of “South Pacific’s” drama--in a week when the Southland is still reeling from the news of foiled plots by racist hate groups, including some in Orange County--unnervingly immediate.

At the same time, this is a college show that the students are obviously having a kick throwing together. With skilled funnyman Sean Cox’s full-time cut-up, Luther Billis, as the spark plug, the kids have a ball, especially with the USO-style show and the frolicsome drag bits in “Honey Bun.”

Once they get rid of the synthesizer in the pit and dress up the stagehands in naval outfits, this “South Pacific” will have fulfilled almost everything in the sound and looks departments one can expect from a college show.

The theater is already more than you would expect for a college show.

* “South Pacific,” Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday matinees, 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $9-$14. (714) 432-5880. Running time: 3 hours.

Terri Mowrey: Ensign Nellie Forbush

Nils Anderson: Emile de Becque

Harmony Davis: Ngana

H. Derek Davis: Jerome

Cristina Rabano: Bloody Mary

Catherine Oloresisimo: Liat

Sean Cox: Luther Billis

Daniel J. Combs: Lt. Joseph Cable

Jim Carnett: Capt. George Brackett

Van Messerschmitt: Cmdr. William Harbison

An Orange Coast College production. Music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. Directed by Alex Golson. Choreographed by Marie de la Palme. Musical director: Alan Remington. Lights: Jane Phillips Hobson. Sound: Brock Cilley. Production stage manager: Rob Stayner.