McEntire, who made her Broadway bow in Annie Get Your Gun, is Ensign Nellie Forbush opposite the Emile de Becque of Brian Stokes Mitchell, who will make his solo Carnegie Hall concert debut Oct. 15. David Lee directs South Pacific, set for Aug. 3 and 4 at 8:30 PM and Aug. 5 at 7:30 PM.
McEntire and Mitchell will be joined onstage by Aaron Lazar as Lt. Joseph Cable, Armelia McQueen as Bloody Mary, Michael McKean as Lt. Billis, Mia Tendora as Ngana, Sebastian Gonzalez as Jerome, Janelle Velasquez as Liat, Jody Ashworth as Stewpot, Steven Hack as Professor, Conrad John Schuck as Capt. George Brackett, John DeMita as Cmdr. William Harbison and Ron Butler as Henry.
The company of islanders, officers, sailors, marines, soldiers and nurses features Katy Blake, Julie Dixon Jackson, Sylvia MacCalla, Carolanne Marano, Lauren Masiello, Shanon Mari Mills, Alice Rietveld, Lisaun Whittingham, Ron Butler, Paul A. Brown, Richard Bulda, Jay Donnell, Wilkie Ferguson, Jeremy Kocal, Chris Prinzo, James Patrick Reese, Tony Spinosa, Tim Talman, Quinn Van Antwerp, Sam Zeller, Irene Cho, Ren Hanami, Angelina Kalani Holliman and Theresa Nguyen.
The Mitch Hanlon Singers, under the direction of Hanlon, are also part of the three concerts.
Paul Gemignani is the musical director for the evenings, which boast the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The creative team also includes Mark Esposito (choreography), Mitchell Hanlon (vocal director), Tom Ruzika (lighting design), Evan Bartoletti (scenic design), Kirk Graves (prop coordination) and Maggie Morgan (costume design). Mitchell and McEntire previously performed the roles of de Becque and Forbush in a concert of the 1949 musical at Carnegie Hall. That evening was filmed and subsequently broadcast for PBS's "Great Performances" series and released on CD by Decca Broadway.
South Pacific features songs by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and was drawn from James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific." Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza co-starred in the original Broadway production, which boasted such classic songs as "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger Than Springtime," "Bali H'ai" and "A Wonderful Guy." The first-ever Broadway revival is scheduled to arrive at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater in February 2008.
The Hollywood Bowl is located in Hollywood, CA, at 2301 N. Highland Avenue. Tickets, priced $7-$147, are available by visiting www.hollywoodbowl.com.
