South Pacific - Kennedy Center Dec 14-Jan 16

This is an early alert for those of you in the Washington D.C. area.

Some of us may recall the production of 'South Pacific' put on by Arena Stage (in D.C.) in 1993. Well, you will soon have the opportunity to see South Pacific again, this time in an even more grand setting.

The Kennedy Center has announced their 2010-2011 Theatre Season, and one of the highlights will be a production of South Pacific, to be presented from Dec. 14 to Jan 16. I'm pretty sure that this production will be based on the same one presented at New York's Lincoln Center, with full orchestra. A few of us here went up to New York to see this production - it was an excellent.

The Kennedy Center production will be performed in the Opera House - the largest theatre space in the Center, so it will surely be a grand experience. You haven't really lived until you've experienced the thrill of a full orchestra start playing those first chords from 'Bali Hai'

Individual tickets are not yet available for sale to the general public. Usually the Kennedy Center allows people to first purchase subscription tickets for the entire season - I expect that opportunity will be presented to the general public very soon.

Being a theatre buff, I will say that the 2010-2011 Theatre season is a rather exceptional one, with many quality plays and musicals, many of which I saw very recently in other productions in both D.C. and New York. Here is a quick list of some of the other offerings .....

• Hair (another great revival - I saw this in NY a few days before South Pacific )
• Wicked (I've yet to see this one )
• Next to Normal (another great musical - saw this twice last time it was in DC)
• Follies (a Sondheim musical, with big Vegas-Showgirl production numbers)
• The Cripple of Inishmaan (excellent drama/comedy)

And if you can't come to D.C. for any of these shows, support live theatre in your own City/town!

Vern