GET ready for an enchanted evening - South Pacific is coming to town and its star, singer and actress Paige O'Hara, promises you a night of song and drama you won't forget.
''It is the quintessential production of this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic - being a classic and being done well, you can't help but be moved and uplifted by it,'' said Paige.
For the past year, Paige has lived the part of young US Navy nurse, Nellie Forbush, the one that just has to wash that man right out-a her hair. Nellie is ''the hick from the sticks'', or Little Rock, Arkansas, to be specific, the home of President Bill Clinton and a backwater during the 40s when this story is set.
This production of South Pacific was a smash hit with the critics and audiences across Australia. It even broke some box office records and may head for the Broadway and the West End. The secret to its success, believes stage veteran Paige, is its combination of 40s song, fun and drama and 90s hi-tech possibilities.
''In other productions, the cast talks about a plane taking off, in this one the audience sees it,'' said Paige.
This production, which is playing 20 nights at the Academy for Performing Arts' Lyric Theatre from tomorrow, is truly the original: a three-minute scene explaining the underlying racism which affects the two love stories is back in for this production was cut from the first Broadway run because of time and it never made it back to the movie version.