This is part of my series of posts about my favorite songs from Musicals that were nominated for the Best Musical Tony award and in this post South Pacific which won the award in 1950 while being the only musical that was nominated that year. South Pacific is a show that is much more book based than Kiss Me, Kate was which I think probably makes the show as a whole a lot stronger since there's so much more going on in this show. This show is one that has a lot going on with it being set in the South Pacific during World War II and dealing with matters of race rather directly. One thing I feel like I should note is that while I loved Mary Martin's voice who played Nellie I find that I didn't like Ezio Pinza's voice who played Emile which is something that is reflected in my song choices.
1. I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair: This song about Nellie saying that she's going to end her relationship with Emile since she believes that he isn't as serious about their relationship as she is one that I find to be delightful both because of her beautiful voice and because it's actually quite good relationship advice to end a relationship if you believe that you and your man have different priorities and it also shows that ending a relationship can be viewed as a good thing.
2. A Cockeyed Optimist: This is another song that shows off Mary Martin's beautiful voice and it establishes Nellie's character by her telling us that she's optimist which she doesn't view as a bad thing but pretty much everyone around her does. I especially love the line that she's Stuck like a dope with a thing called hope and I can't get it out of my heart, this song does a good job at making me like her character right away.
3. A Wonderful Guy: This song is a love song sang by Nellie shortly after she almost ended her relationship with Emile but have now instead decided to marry him. In this song Nellie addresses how it's a bit silly of her to be so in love and so sappy about it but she is both of those things and she wants to share that fact with everyone around her right now since she's just so in love and so happy about it which is just such a sweet song to listen to.
4. Younger Than Springtime: This song sang by Cable about how he is falling in love Liat a young local island girl is one that is incredibly sweet and is great song that shows they emotion of someone falling in love at first sight which is something I find very romantic in musicals.
5. You've Got to Be Carefully Taught: This song sang by Cable about how people are taught be to hate be taught to people for being different than you are and that these viewpoints are ones that often comes from ones parents makes this song one that shares the show's messages about race which was something that wasn't often talked about so directly like this at the time which I think makes this song an important one.
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