Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific is coming to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre - here, RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne talks to one of its stars, Joanna Ampil.
It’s just a statement of fact that you can’t beat a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Whether it’s Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma!, South Pacific or whatever, there’s a magic about these shows and their songs that’s pretty much timeless.
We’ve seen several of their shows in Ireland in recent years, but South Pacific is heading to Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for one week only, from Tuesday September 13 until Saturday September 17.
It boasts one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most memorable scores, and this much-loved Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical features songs such as Some Enchanted Evening, Happy Talk, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and Bali Ha’i.
This powerful love story set on a South Pacific Island during World War ll is coming to Dublin with a sensational cast of over thirty and a full orchestra.
This production features Bridgerton and Downtown Abbey star Julian Ovenden and West End leading lady Gina Beck, as well as renowned West End singer and actress Joanna Ampil in the pivotal role of Bloody Mary.
Joanna has many accomplishments as a singer and actress. Her albums include Joanna Ampil and Try Love. She has performed in various London West End musicals including Les Misérables as Fantine, Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats.
She starred as Kim in the Australian premiere of Miss Saigon in 1995 at the Capitol Theatre Sydney. And in 2011 she performed the role of Thanh in the world premiere of The Real Love at the Pasadena Civic Center in California. She also has several television credits.
South Pacific is just after finishing a run at London’s prestigious Sadler’s Wells Theatre, which provides the cast and crew with a bit of a break and then it’s on the road with a tour that begins in Dublin. It’s probably the best time to chat with Joanna Ampil.
It's always a good time to see South Pacific.
John Byrne: Hi Joanna. Are you looking forward to going out on tour?
Joanna Ampil: Yep, and I’m looking forward to going to Dublin! In particular. It’s like going back home. I was there many years ago, when I was doing Miss Saigon, and also, I did a panto there as well!
And I’ve done a concert at the Borg Gais Theatre also, so I’m very familiar with Dublin. So I know the Bord Gais and I love performing for audiences there too.
The rumours I’m hearing is that this is a pretty high-end production . . .
Based on what people say to me, it’s a classy production, and that the standards are high so I’m very thrilled to know that, and we are very proud of the show. It has been redefined, it’s been reimagined, and so we’re very proud of it.
People who have seen the show in the past will probably realise that we have raised the stakes in this production. We basically have the islanders’ point of view. Much more, the representation is at its best here. We are almost re-educating people who were misinformed in the last, with the knowledge that we have now.
So the show is really more on the representation. We’ve added a new bit of music and prologue. It is a musical development of Younger Than Springtime. So I hum to that, at the start of the show.
We have rearranged one of my songs, which is Happy Talk, just to keep it more in keeping with the mood of the scene. We still have the beautiful music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, but it’s been perfected, I suppose it’s safe to say.
The show’s been on the go since 1949, so it’s in its 70s now. For its time, confronting racism back then would have almost been unthinkable.
Rodgers and Hammerstein were always highlighting those issues in their shows, but people always think, oh it’s racist, but it’s actually anti-racist. It’s just the representation is much better this time around.
The character, for example, that I play, Bloody Mary, was more of a caricature during that time. I was a bit hesitant in accepting the role, until [director] Daniel Evans reassured me that, no, it’s going to be completely different - so forget about what you’ve seen in the past. We are redefining her, we’re going to show more of her human side.
And he was true to his word. We’re showing the deconstruction of Bloody Mary here, when she takes off her mask and we realise that she and Liat are one and the same, only to show what she has sacrificed to giver her child a better future.
You’ve been involved in many major productions over the course of your career - do you approach each role in a similar fashion?
Every time you put on a show, because you layer it up so much, you try to become the role, to the point where you can switch on and off, when you're on and when you’re offstage. It’s second nature. So I fall in love with every character I play.
Even at the start - and I was a bit hesitant about accepting the role - but now it’s like I live and breathe Bloody Mary, doing with shows a week. So then you can’t help but fall in love with the shows and the characters that you play. That’s the only way to do it, really, for you to execute the role in the best way possible.
At the end of the day, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein are these guys who wrote beautiful, great songs . . .
They’re geniuses of their craft, you know? They’re masters for creating musicals which are going to be relevant forever, really.
In this day and age we still have Rodgers and Hammerstein all over the word, playing, and the issues are still the same. They’re just highlighted much more now because we have more knowledge about those things.
It’s always going to be a classic.
There was a production of Carousel last year, at the same time as South Pacific. At the Regent’s Park, open air. And also there’s a production of Oklahoma! - at the Young Vic, I believe. Or the Old Vic, I can’t remember which one.
So there are three productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein that are ongoing . . . People just love the music.
And we have this lush, 16-piece orchestra playing every night with us. That is already a luxury in itself. Just listening to them, it makes me feel so lucky to sing with that amount of beauty and wonder. So yeah, I visualise myself as very blessed.
South Pacific plays at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre September Tuesday 13- Saturday 17 and tickets are available from Ticketmaster
