So perhaps it’s fitting that Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego stages this classic just three days after America elected the son of an interracial marriage. And just three days after California voted to ban same-sex marriages, a majority of the population embracing another restriction of marriage, telling a portion of the state’s adult population that they are incapable of selecting the spouse of their choice. Some see the vote as an important victory for morality, while others see it as a blow to basic civil rights, and proof that many people are still learning how to hate.

The lovable Nellie Forbush is the one who has to try to un-learn those lessons, with Emma Stratton starring in the role as the fun, lively, and sweet nurse with one critical flaw. Emma has a remarkable singing voice and good stage presence, shining in the lighthearted Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair sung with her fellow nurses when she gets mildly apprehensive about getting involved with a man she hardly knows (and who just admitted he killed someone). But sung before the greatest threat comes to their relationship. Spencer Meredith is the French widower Emile, singing the beautiful ballads Some Enchanted Evening and the touching This Nearly Was Mine. Joe Cable (Antonio Romero) has to battle his own inner demons, singing Younger Than Springtime to beautiful Bali Ha’i native Liat (Frances Farabaugh) before explaining his refusal to marry her with Carefully Taught.

They are surrounded by a colorful group of supporting characters, none more so than the singular Bloody Mary. Erin Wuthrich is a riot, whether she’s mooning over Cable (literally – checking out his butt), throwing in little things like her giddy bye-bye’s to Cable as he sails from Bali Ha’i, annoying an embarrassed daughter Liat with her eager interference, or ripping into “stingy bastard” Seabees. Patrick Kelley tops the list of stingy bastards as Luther Billis, the entrepreneurial Seabee always out to make a buck who excels at pretending to be a woman (miming Bloody Mary in a Bali Ha’i reprise or joining Nick Scutti as a couple hula girls at the Thanksgiving Follies in Honey Bun with Nellie). The ensemble of nurses also join Nellie in a fun version of Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair, and the group of dame-deprived Seabees shine as they lament there ain’t Nothin’ Like a Dame. In a nice touch, one of the dancing dames (Jake Picker) comes back to pick up her hat and playfully drives the guys further nuts for the last part of the song, leaving the Seabees crumbling rather like falling tin soldiers as she finally leaves (choreography by Rayna Stohl).

Performed November 7 - 15, 2008.

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre

~ Cast ~