South Pacific caps off a Bowl week

Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell (pictured above) headlined Saturday night's Hollywood Bowl staging of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and it was a lovely evening. The show was much more fully staged than I was expecting, with a big unit set and choreography and everything. I was expecting them to just plunk down the Carnegie Hall concert from two years ago, and I would have been fine with it. Staging it full presented its own problems: the book scenes fell flat in the Bowl's enormous amphitheatre, and the show seemed even more old fashioned than usual, what with Bloody Mary screaming "Lieutellant!" and pawning off her Polynesian daughter on an American GI - all broadcast over giant loudspeakers into the night air. Was the book abridged? I'm not sure, but the plot moved implausably fast (from 'hello' to 'will you marry me' in 3 minutes flat!). But Brian Stokes Mitchell sealed the deal for me early in the evening when he sang "Some Enchanted Evening" in his velvety baritone. McEntire was loveable and charismatic as Nellie Forbush, and Aaron Lazar a sweet-voiced and very likeable Leutenant Cable.

(Reba McEntire & Brian Stokes Mitchell on the big screen, and on stage)

It was fun to see the Bowl stage transformed for this production - I guess with three shows that sold well, they could afford to. It makes me fantasize for a show that I would LOVE to see done at the bowl: Kenneth MacMillan's staging of Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. In the theatre it can seem overloaded and pagaent-like, but in the Bowl, its over-the-top theatrics would work brilliantly. MacMillan's staging would require minimal adaptation for the Bowl, since much of the memorable dancing occurs in pas de deux that don't eat as much stage space as a classical Petipa one does. Plus with Prokofiev's enormous score, it'd be great meat for an orchestra to play. Bring in, say, The Royal Ballet and the place could be packed at least for one night. One can dream...

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I also ended up going to the other two concerts at the Bowl this week, one because I got free tickets through a friend, the other because it was Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Beethoven's 9th - couldn't miss that.

The 9th Symphony on Tuesday night was great - huge, energetic, bombastic. The LA Phil played it very well under MTT's baton, with the LA Master Chorale. They also played two lesser known Beethoven pieces earlier in the program, as a kind of musical appetizer. Tilson-Thomas energetically spoke from the podium, introducing the three pieces; I think more conductors should do this at the Bowl, since not everyone buys the $1 program. The conductor's personal remarks really add some nice color to the program, and in the more celebratory outdoor atmosphere, makes the evening more fun. I can only remember Esa-Pekka Salonen doing it occasionally, and I always loved the notes that John Mauceri, the Bowl Orchestra's previous music director, gave.

Tilson-Thomas also conducted Thursday's concert of American music. Thomas Hampson sang a collection of Old American Songs by Aaron Copland, and for an orchestral portrait of Abraham Lincoln - also by Copland - Gore Vidal read quotes from the late president's speeches. The reading was appropriately wise and patriotic, and with Copland's grand score behind it gave the text a somber, important weight. A bouncy, fun playing of Gerswhin's An American in Paris closed the program. I missed the first piece of the night, Symphonic Dances from Bernstein's West Side Story. Why? Because I went to take my first ballet class! More on that later...