South Pacific is adapted from James A. Mitchener's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Tales from the South Pacific. Set on a remote island in the South Seas, this well-known musical chronicles two parallel romances during WWII. Nellie Forbush, a young Navy nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with Emile de Becque, a wealthy French plantation owner. Nellie finds out Emile is also the father of two half caste children, and unable to overcome her personal prejudices, turns her back on Emile. The second romance is between a young American officer (Lieutenant Joe Cable) and Liat, a beautiful Polynesian girl and daughter of a Tonkinese trader, Bloody Mary. Joe struggles with the same issues as Nellie, and consequently denies himself a future with the woman he loves. Then Emile and Joe are both leave on a dangerous spy mission behind Japanese enemy lines, but only one of them returns.
At the time of writing, the theme of interracial love was a daring one, but South Pacific went on to become one of the most popular musicals of all times with a whole array of well-known songs such as Some Enchanted Evening, I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy, Younger than Springtime, Bali Hai, I Gotta Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, You've Got to be Taught, This Nearly Was Mine, Honey Bun, There is Nothing Like a Dame, and Happy Talk. The musical has received several coveted awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.