"Lovensheimer's remarkable account of "South Pacific" firmly situates the show in late 1940s America, showing how Rodgers and Hammerstein used their 'enchanted evening' also to explore issues of race, gender, and national identity still resonant today."-Tim Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of "Oklahoma!" The Making of an American Musical "With this extraordinary new book, Jim Lovensheimer portrays a multidimensional "South Pacific" -- one that not only soared with beautiful melodies but also addressed major social and political issues of its day, from racism to colonialism. Lucid and enlightening, South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten sets a model for studying Broadway's iconic shows in meaningful contexts."-Carol J. Oja, William Powell Mason Professor, Harvard University "Jim Lovensheimer traces how Rodgers and Hammerstein transformed James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into a Broadway smash hit. In considering why "South Pacific" remains lodged in our collective unconscious, he ingeniously teases out its postwar racial politics, gender constructions, and colonial discourse."-bruce d.
mcclung, University of Cincinnati, and author of "Lady in the Dark": Biography of a Musical "Fascinating. Unquestionably a major addition to the literature on this particular show, on Rodgers and Hammerstein, and on the American musical in general." -TalkinBroadway.com "[An] invigorating study.a highly enlightening book on the act of creating a musical itself." --Times Literary Supplement "A very thorough, meticulous, and engrossing study of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.May serve as a model for other books and other landmark Broadway musical." --Fontes Artis Musicae "Covers a wide range of fascinating aspects of South Pacific, providing a scene by scene and issue by issue discussion of how this musical came to be.
" --Brad Hathaway - Theater Shelf "Lovensheimer's work bodes well for the series and affirms the rich potential in monographs devoted to individual musicals." --The Drama Review.