South Pacific - Chichester/ Sadlers Wells/Tour

Date! Date! Date!

What an absolutely fantastic day in Chichester. Having great weather gave me the opportunity to have a good exploration of the city this morning which is something I’ve had the chance to do on previous visits to the CFT. A really lovely city with some fantastic buildings to have a look at before having a nice relaxed lunch within the theatre parkland pre-show .

With regards to the show itself, director Daniel Evans and his team really have created a gem of a production at the CFT. For a £10 front row ticket, I couldn’t have asked for more and really struck gold with my seat. An absolutely stellar cast assembled combined with a wonderful 15 piece orchestra led by Cat Beveridge made for an amazing afternoon’s theatrical viewing and a well deserved standing ovation at the end of the show. 

It’s the first time I’ve seen Julian Ovenden perform live and what a talent. Hearing him sing was just a joy and worth the ticket price alone. For me Gina’s pregnancy was a non-issue here. It didn’t have any impact on me or her interpretation of the role and for Rob Houchen who looked mighty fine in an officers uniform, he delivered the vocal goods as always. Jonna Ampil got plenty of laughs from this afternoons’s audience as Bloody Mary.

Will it get a life outside of the CFT?, well I would hope so but in these times who knows.

Sadly I didn’t get to meet alece10 , but hopefully he got as much joy out of the show as I did. 

Lovely, joyful review. I've missed these so much. Thanks david 😊

Just wanted to add my experiences from Friday. This is a wonderful production, very traditional, fantastic music and so good to see a full cast production again after so long.

It is staged in the round. The stage rotates at various times so you can see different parts of the staging. Some parts are obscured, depending where you sit.

I was sat on one of the front row £10 seats, booked quite late, an excellent sideways view. You do risk some interaction if you're in the front row, especially when the navy arrives and when Bloody Mary is hawking her wares. I can't really tell how this breaks from tradition, perhaps during the initial entrances? There are two marines in a subtle relationship. You get to watch a topless Iroy Abesamis seductively massage a long spout he's hawking for a few minutes, but that's no surprise if you ever saw him during the most recent tour of The King and I.

This one does give you tears in all of the right places.

My single biggest concern? As you go in, there's a sign listing all the trigger warnings, including gunshots. A sign like that puts me (and I'm sure others) on edge for the entire performance. I know it's a wartime show, they really went to town with the gunshots the last time I was at Chichester (Oklahoma), there are large guns carried around at various times, but at no time were any guns fired. There weren't even any load noises, just some relatively quiet background sound effects. The theatre should really be more considerate with its signage.

Running time, this finished at exactly 22:20. I had two trains available that would get me back to London, one at 22:40 (changing at Gatwick) and one at 22:49 (changing in Brighton - quite a detour). Checked my phone at the interval and the 22:49 has been cancelled. Thankfully, it took only a minute or so to get out of the theatre and I'd worked out the fastest route back to the station and made it with 3 or 4 minutes to spare. The 22:40 arrives on the nearest platform. But it does need a brisk walk and my train companions were not all the most pleasant (the conductor was having a hard time checking tickets). So, if you do rely on public transport and you can't afford Chichester hotel prices, I'd recommend you go for a matinee.

I do have an evening ticket booked to see Zack Guest when he is on as Lieutenant Cable, but I may end up trying to switch for the matinee just to avoid the hassle.

It would be good to know when Alex Young is on as well (Gina Beck was excellent and the happy occasion of her pregnancy barely noticeable in the way this was presented and how they had chosen some other larger dancers in the female ensemble, but I'd like to see Alex too).

Hopefully this will find a London home, but if you don't want to risk missing it, do get over to Chichester!

Is it ‘Thrust’ then, with the audience on 3 sides? Is it just a bit sticky outy like the olivier? One simply needs to know!

Any chance of this transferring into town or am I gonna have to haul myself to Chichester?

I hope this transfers, as personal circumstances mean a trip to Chichester, lovely as it would be, is out of the question right now, and I'd rather see it in a theatre than streamed.

South Pacific is the weak link for me in the R&H cannon, but it's also the only one of the big shows I've not seen on stage, and I'd like to give it a proper chance.

I've always felt like the score had a lot of semi-filler (songs like There is Nothing Like a Dame, Bloody Mary and I'm Gonna Wash That Man... don't really do it for me, and seem to exist purely to have show-piece numbers to cover the fact there's not much plot there.) I also find the score lacks any truly spine-tingling moments. I know Some Enchanted Evening is a classic but to me it's nowhere near the likes of If I Loved You, Something Wonderful, Edelweiss and others.

But maybe if I saw a really great production on stage I'd be won over!

Aah, streaming just doesn't do it for me unfortunately.

Any seating advice for this one? Wanting to go cheaper rather than the more expensive seats.
Options are Side stalls at £18 or same price on the curving part of the balcony (row U)

Thank you David. I knew I'd had a cheapish stalls ticket when I saw Sweeney. Raked through my ticket stubs and the then £11 seat is now £33! But its just along from the £18 seats so will go for them. Thanks!

Oh yes. Agree, it’s a shame it couldn’t of come on stage. It was definitely a surprise to see it. It looked impressive from where I was sat. 

Have booked for Tuesday in the side stalls seats (£18) - Hopefully not too restricted at the side.