Video: Inside the SOUTH PACIFIC Reunion Concert
Dec 12, 2024
Monday night was some enchanted evening indeed at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, where the cast of the acclaimed 2008 revival of South Pacific reunited to benefit Lincoln Center Theatre. Watch in this video as the cast reunites and reminisces.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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The original cast of Lincoln Center Theater's glorious production of South Pacific
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came together for a one-night-only concert, and I caught up with them just minutes after the curtain rang down
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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
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without someone mentioning South Pacific. You know, I sing one of these songs in every symphony concert I do
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So it just felt heavy with that, being back in the space in the Vivian Beaumont
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after 10 years since The King and I. It's all been so emotional
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but I just love these people so much. They were, it was a very special group
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It's been joyful to kind of like tap back into these roles
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and to look at someone in the eye and to like suddenly feel all that connection to stuff
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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
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But I remember it was like the one time in my career that I really messed up a line
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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
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And I also remember going to Danny's dressing room because he helped me with my Glee audition
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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
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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
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It's just magical, you know. We've been admiring ourselves throughout all these years apart
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but secretly dreaming about this reunion and to do the scenes together, to sing together
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to blend our voices, our emotions together. it was really a thrill
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and a present from Lincoln Center Theater. You know, we started on Thursday
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We only learned music. I had Friday. Kelly wasn't there on Saturday, and I had yesterday
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And then today we put it together this afternoon. So mostly I was spending my time going
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just flying through it, and realizing I can't just do it behind music stands
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I had to actually stage it, so I had to be very particular about opening it up
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to the parts that would be, you know, where I could make it make it work
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So when everyone took their bow tonight, what were you thinking? What was going through your mind
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Thank God that we got through that. And I was very moved to see them all
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And I also was like going to be a little heartbroken not to have them together again
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Not to, you know, how can we do more? What else can we do? How can we keep working
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It was all of that. It was a very emotional night, as I'm sure you've been hearing from everybody
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And sometimes surprising places I would choke up. Yeah, and just to be reunited, not just with the cast
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but with the original orchestra too, very moving. It's the rare occasion of being able to go back
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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
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in Act 3 and gets to visit a normal day in her life and see how amazingly special it is. This
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has been a tidal wave of emotion for everybody. We've all been crying in the last five days
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Incredible. I mean, we sobbed through rehearsal and tonight we pretty much sobbed through the
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entire show. I was lucky. that Bart hit me backstage for the first half
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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
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The dynamic between all of us is, as George Merrick just said
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lightning strike. It doesn't strike twice. And to be back with your fellow cohorts on stage, all grown up
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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
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next to him, holding his hand while we bowed. It was beautiful. Yeah. When you took your bow tonight
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like, what were you thinking? What went through your mind? I guess I was just like unreal
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Like, I was just so happy because you never, again, you never think you're going to have the opportunity
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to do something like this again. And just being with all these people that I have such a special
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and deep connection with each person on that stage. Like, it was just so beautiful. I can't even
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explain. It just makes you feel warm and like you're there. Yeah. I was thinking I'll see
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everybody again tomorrow and half hour. Let's see it again. Yeah, let's do it again. This is
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first preview. Super excited
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