SOUTH PACIFIC

Sadler’s Wells until August 28 sadlerswells.com

Glorious music, sensational performances and respectful, vibrant treatment of surprisingly profound original material combine to elevate this production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s sublime 1949 musical, set on a Second World War US Navy base in the South Pacific.

Julian Ovenden brings depth alongside that operatic belt as world-weary plantation owner Emile, falling hopelessly for Gina Beck’s irresistibly brash and exuberant Arkansan nurse Nellie.

His delivery of Some Enchanted Evening is spine-tingling, while This Nearly Was Mine is heartbreaking. She fabulously romps through A Cockeyed Optimist and I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy before being forced to face her own ugly bigotry when confronted with his two half-polynesian children.

The text is startlingly modern as Nellie claims she was born feeling that way. It’s refuted by the glorious Rob Houchen’s young officer Joe in You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught. He also tenderly, vividly portrays Joe’s own doomed love for island girl Liat (Sera Maehara), who exquisitely communicates through dance.

The excellent ensemble revel in joyously staged numbers like There’s Nothing Like A Dame for the boys and I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair for the girls, before the harsher realities of war and human nature creep in.

It’s flawlessly executed. I beamed throughout Act I and was deeply, desperately moved by Act II. For days afterwards, I had Some Enchanted Evening humming around my head – and that’s exactly what it was.