The multi-Tony Award winning classic comes to Knoxville
Rodgers & Hammerstein's ten Tony Award-winning (including Best Musical, Best Score) lush Pacific island-set musical will set your heart on fire amid tropical backgrounds and haunting songs. A socially progressive musical for its time when it premiered in 1949, it encourages a message of overcoming social and racial prejudices, which at the time risked censor by legislators. Two love stories form the crux of the production, with the threat of World War II looming over the relatively peaceful Pacific Islands in the background.
Follow Nellie Forbush, an American Navy nurse who is stationed on an unnamed Pacific Island as World War II rages on in Europe. In love with a local plantation owner with mixed-raced children from a previous relationship, she must confront her own racial prejudice to find happiness. Meanwhile a young GI falls in love with an islander, but is worried about the social implications should he marry her. Two of Broadway's most enduring supporting characters appear here, a comic petty officer who is best friends with the loved-up lieutenant, and the mother of the Tonkinese girl, Bloody Mary, an enigmatic mother-figure with spiritual connections.
The musical features popular numbers including "Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", the haunting "Bali Ha'i" and "One Enchanted Evening".