Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific Live in Concert from Carnegie Hall DVD

Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific in Concert from Carnegie Hall DVD. Color, full screen, 120 minutes.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's glorious score for South Pacific gets a surge of welcome new energy in this 2005 Carnegie Hall concert. Brian Stokes Mitchell as French planter Emile de Becque is in spectacular voice singing "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine," but the real discovery is country star Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush. McEntire won raves when she replaced Bernadette Peters in Annie Get Your Gun, but her performance was never recorded and released to the general public. Now we can understand the raves for ourselves, because McEntire is a joy in a role that features such standards as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and "A Wonderful Guy."

The redheaded Oklahoma firebrand took on the one-night-only concert role of Nellie Forbush on June 9, 2005 - the role Mary Martin immortalized in the 1949 Rodgers & Hammerstein classic South Pacific - and the rialto's toughest critics, led by The New York Times' Ben Brantley, instantly surrendered. "Open-voiced and open-faced, she was born to play Nellie," Brantley wrote of the Carnegie Hall benefit performance, adding that the entire production was performed "in a state of nearly unconditional rapture. It was one of those nights when cynicism didn't stand a chance." Happily that enchanted evening can be shared with fans everywhere with "South Pacific" In Concert From Carnegie Hall on DVD. Also starring Alec Baldwin as wise guy sailor Luther Billis.

Color, full screen, DVD.