Video: Inside the SOUTH PACIFIC Reunion Concert

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

The original cast of Lincoln Center Theater's glorious production of South Pacific

came together for a one-night-only concert, and I caught up with them just minutes after the curtain rang down

I so proud I so proud that I got lucky back there and got put in this show got chosen for this show that I love this character I love I hate her and I love her and I love that she shows change And it was very hard It harder for me to play her now than it was then emotionally but I proud of it This has a lot of my life in it this show You know this is my son here who 16 you know he was in my belly It started my career in her way I don do anything these days with that

without someone mentioning South Pacific. You know, I sing one of these songs in every symphony concert I do

So it just felt heavy with that, being back in the space in the Vivian Beaumont

after 10 years since The King and I. It's all been so emotional

but I just love these people so much. They were, it was a very special group

It's been joyful to kind of like tap back into these roles

and to look at someone in the eye and to like suddenly feel all that connection to stuff

that I felt 16 years ago. We've been thrown around a lot of fun stories this week, but I flubbed this line for the reading tonight in rehearsals, not in the show

But I remember it was like the one time in my career that I really messed up a line

And I just went in the white room for so long. And I was talking to Danny about it today and he had to help me get out of it

And I also remember going to Danny's dressing room because he helped me with my Glee audition

Yeah, I was like, I got this thing for this, this, and I'll always be eternally grateful for him, for Lincoln Center, for letting me out to do the show

Yeah this was this was the moment where I got that little show Oh the world It meant the world you know To be with Kelly and to do the scenes with everyone else

It's just magical, you know. We've been admiring ourselves throughout all these years apart

but secretly dreaming about this reunion and to do the scenes together, to sing together

to blend our voices, our emotions together. it was really a thrill

and a present from Lincoln Center Theater. You know, we started on Thursday

We only learned music. I had Friday. Kelly wasn't there on Saturday, and I had yesterday

And then today we put it together this afternoon. So mostly I was spending my time going

just flying through it, and realizing I can't just do it behind music stands

I had to actually stage it, so I had to be very particular about opening it up

to the parts that would be, you know, where I could make it make it work

So when everyone took their bow tonight, what were you thinking? What was going through your mind

Thank God that we got through that. And I was very moved to see them all

And I also was like going to be a little heartbroken not to have them together again

Not to, you know, how can we do more? What else can we do? How can we keep working

It was all of that. It was a very emotional night, as I'm sure you've been hearing from everybody

And sometimes surprising places I would choke up. Yeah, and just to be reunited, not just with the cast

but with the original orchestra too, very moving. It's the rare occasion of being able to go back

to a high school reunion where every moment of high school was fabulous and you loved everybody That exactly what it felt like except it all happened like a genie popping out of a bottle three days It was a dream Tonight was like that scene in our town where she goes back

in Act 3 and gets to visit a normal day in her life and see how amazingly special it is. This

has been a tidal wave of emotion for everybody. We've all been crying in the last five days

Incredible. I mean, we sobbed through rehearsal and tonight we pretty much sobbed through the

entire show. I was lucky. that Bart hit me backstage for the first half

so that I could just freely sob as I wanted to. It was incredible. It's such a special show. There's no other cast like it

The dynamic between all of us is, as George Merrick just said

lightning strike. It doesn't strike twice. And to be back with your fellow cohorts on stage, all grown up

Amazing. I've known Lucas since we were three, and five years old. I taught him how to read. So he is my true brother. And it was so amazing sitting

next to him, holding his hand while we bowed. It was beautiful. Yeah. When you took your bow tonight

like, what were you thinking? What went through your mind? I guess I was just like unreal

Like, I was just so happy because you never, again, you never think you're going to have the opportunity

to do something like this again. And just being with all these people that I have such a special

and deep connection with each person on that stage. Like, it was just so beautiful. I can't even

explain. It just makes you feel warm and like you're there. Yeah. I was thinking I'll see

everybody again tomorrow and half hour. Let's see it again. Yeah, let's do it again. This is

first preview. Super excited