South Pacific Manila Review: Vividly of Its Time

I grew up with bits and pieces of South Pacific before I ever really understood the whole musical. “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Happy Talk” were already familiar, and I still remember a South Pacific programme we had at home from Repertory Philippines' 1997 production. I wasn't sure at first whether I had actually seen it, but my sister confirmed that we watched that production as kids.

Seeing the UST Conservatory of Music's South Pacific: The Comeback at the Proscenium Theater brought all of that familiarity back in a completely different way. Directed by Paolo O'Hara, with Daniel Bartolome leading the UST Symphony Orchestra, this production made a musical that first opened on Broadway in 1949 feel remarkably present without trying to make it behave like something written today.

That was what I appreciated most about it. This is still a World War II story, populated by people carrying the manners, assumptions, prejudices, and expectations of their time. The production doesn't sand those edges down for a 2026 audience, and the characters are more interesting because of it.

That matters particularly in the way South Pacific deals with race. Nellie Forbush and Lt. Cable aren't looking at prejudice from the comfortable distance we have now. They are forced to recognize beliefs they themselves carry, especially once those beliefs interfere with people they care about. The musical was dealing with that in 1949, and some of the discomfort still feels much closer than you might expect more than 75 years later.

Ciara Sotto and Jose Vera Perez in Technicolor

Ciara Sotto and Jose Vera Perez felt exactly right as Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque. Watching them together sometimes felt like seeing these characters in Technicolor: unmistakably of another era, but vivid, warm, and completely alive in front of us.

Ciara gives Nellie the brightness the role needs. She's funny, enthusiastic, romantic, and easy to enjoy, which makes it more uncomfortable when the character's prejudices begin to surface. Ciara doesn't try to rescue Nellie from that contradiction. The woman who disappoints us is the same woman we've already grown fond of.

She also captures Nellie's sense of someone discovering a world much larger than the one she came from. Her excitement sits beside the limits of how far she has actually moved beyond the ideas she grew up with, and Ciara allows both sides of the character to exist without making either one feel forced.

Jose's Emile has a different kind of presence. He feels like a man who already had a complete life before Nellie entered it, with a maturity and formality that suit the period without making him stiff or distant. That becomes especially important in “Some Enchanted Evening.” The song asks for an unabashed kind of romantic sincerity, and Jose doesn't apologize for that or try to make it cooler. He lets Emile mean it, which is why I believed him.

Together, Ciara and Jose don't modernize Nellie and Emile. They give people from another time enough color, warmth, and personality that the distance between their world and ours becomes much smaller.

The people around the leads had lives of their own

One of my favorite things about the production was seeing how distinct the people around the principal characters felt. From K26, I had enough of the full stage in view to notice the company as a whole, and what stood out was how individual the characters could be. They didn't read as one anonymous block surrounding the leads. Different personalities, reactions, relationships, and little moments registered across the stage.

That gave the larger scenes much more life. Even when several characters shared the same space or broad action, they didn't all seem to experience the moment in exactly the same way. The differences between them helped make the island feel populated by people rather than by an ensemble moving as a single unit.

What impressed me just as much was how naturally the younger performers stood beside seasoned artists. I never felt like I was watching two different levels of performer sharing one production. The company carried itself with a consistency that allowed the individual characters to matter more than who had more professional experience behind them.

That's probably the biggest compliment I can give the ensemble. The seasoned performers may have had longer careers, but the company around them never felt lesser. They belonged in the same world and on the same stage.

Nenen Espina's Bloody Mary stole the show

Among the professional cast, Nenen Espina was my standout as Bloody Mary. She immediately reminded me of the classic South Pacific movie, not because she seemed to be copying anyone, but because she has the kind of heightened theatrical presence that suits the character.

Nenen can make Bloody Mary funny and larger than life without reducing her to comic relief. Bloody Mary watches people closely, knows what she wants from them, and often seems several moves ahead even while making the audience laugh.

At times, she felt as though she had stepped out of an older screen version of South Pacific and walked onto the Proscenium stage. I kept finding myself looking for her whenever she was around, even when the scene was asking me to watch someone else. Among a strong company, Nenen stole the show for me.

South Pacific really is better with a live orchestra

The UST Symphony Orchestra was already one of the things I was most looking forward to, and hearing the score live confirmed how much South Pacific benefits from it. “Some Enchanted Evening” needs that sweep, while “Bali Ha'i” needs atmosphere. “Happy Talk,” which I've known for years, gains another kind of warmth when all of that sound is being made in the same room.

Daniel Bartolome and the UST Symphony Orchestra give the music size without competing with what is happening onstage. Some of the strongest moments were the ones when I stopped consciously thinking about the orchestra because the sound had simply become part of the scene.

For a production mounted by the UST Conservatory of Music, that feels exactly right. The orchestra isn't an extra attraction attached to the show. It is one of the reasons this South Pacific feels as complete as it does.

UST gives South Pacific to a new generation

UST first mounted this South Pacific at the Proscenium Theater in February 2026 as part of the Conservatory of Music's 80th anniversary, then brought it back in September as South Pacific: The Comeback.

That choice feels more significant when you consider how rarely a major fully staged professional South Pacific has appeared in Metro Manila in recent decades. Repertory Philippines mounted its production in 1997, the one I now know I saw as a child. Almost three decades later, UST has given the musical a major local production for a very different generation of theatergoers.

What I like about that is how naturally the production bridges those generations. The leads bring the confidence and experience you expect from seasoned theater artists, while the younger performers around them show how strong the company can be alongside them. The UST Symphony Orchestra gives Rodgers and Hammerstein's music the size it deserves, and the production feels like the Conservatory putting its strengths onstage.

For me, this is the definitive South Pacific of this Metro Manila theater generation. I don't mean that as a dismissal of what came before it. I saw the 1997 production myself, even if my memories of it now mostly survive through the programme, the songs, and my sister confirming that we were there. This UST production belongs to the audience seeing it now.

For someone encountering South Pacific for the first time, Ciara Sotto may become their Nellie, Jose Vera Perez their Emile, and Nenen Espina their Bloody Mary. Years from now, this may be the production that gives them the same kind of familiarity I carried from seeing the musical as a child. That's a wonderful legacy for an 80th anniversary production to create.

K26 at Proscenium Theater was just right

I watched from K26 at the Proscenium Theater, and I wouldn't have wanted to move much closer for this particular show. The seat gave me a wonderful full-stage view without putting me so far away that I lost the performers.

I could follow Nellie and Emile while still noticing the individual characters and smaller interactions around them, and the larger stage pictures had enough room to register as complete compositions. That wider perspective is probably part of why the company made such an impression on me.

Sitting closer might have given me more facial detail, but I would have lost some of what was happening around the leads. If you like seeing the whole production while remaining connected to the performers, K26 worked beautifully for South Pacific.

Vividly of its time

Coming back to South Pacific as an adult made me appreciate how much more sits inside the musical than the songs I remembered from childhood. UST's production doesn't treat the age of the material as something that needs to be fixed, and that confidence is a big part of why it works.

Ciara Sotto and Jose Vera Perez give Nellie and Emile warmth and dimension without pulling them out of their time. Nenen Espina feels completely at home in the musical's theatrical tradition. The company gives the island a life beyond its principal characters, while the UST Symphony Orchestra gives Rodgers and Hammerstein's score the scale it deserves.

That's where the Technicolor comparison fits for me. This production doesn't turn the past into something prettier or easier than it was. It simply gives that world enough color, texture, and life for us to see its people clearly.

Almost three decades after seeing South Pacific as a kid, I got to experience it again through a production made for a new generation. This time, I'll remember much more than the programme.

For the remaining September performances and booking details, see the South Pacific: The Comeback schedule and ticket guide. More productions and dates are listed in the Manila Theater calendar.