Back to Random Songs -- 1949 Anti-racism Musical

 #19 This Nearly Was Mine (from South Pacific) – Brian Stokes Mitchell performance (2006)

There are a lot of memories and related ideas with today’s song, so let me see where to start.

I guess we should start with the musical South Pacific first. Composed by Richard Rodgers, with music by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, this musical is about racism – premiering on Broadway in 1949. The story was based on stories from James Michner’s Tales of the South Pacific. Briefly (I hope), an expatriate plantation owner and a Navy nurse fall in love, but she struggles to accept his mixed-race children. In a subplot, a Marine lieutenant falls in love with a Tonkinese girl (Liat) on the island but worries about the reaction if he returns to Philadelphia with an Asian wife. Two comic characters, a wily Navy chief petty officer and the Tonkinese girl’s mother, tie the stories together. Nothing is spared as racism is explored, especially in the lieutenant’s song, “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.” It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950 and was second only to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! at the time for its length of Broadway residence. It was made into a movie in 1958 and a Broadway revival in 2006 that ran for 996 performances.

It is famous for many musical standards (which you may know if your dad sang these songs, which mind did, or you’re just an old fart), such as, “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Bali Ha’i,” and – while not as well-known -- my favorite, “This Nearly Was Mine.”

Let’s pause the song’s story right there for a moment.

Sometime between 2006 and 2011 (because 2006 was when it was performed and 2011 because we were still in the old house – pre-fire), the Food Guy and I were scrolling through our few channels. We’ve never had cable, so our choices were limited. We happened upon nearly the beginning of South Pacific in Concert from Carnegie Hall (Great Performances) on one of the Spanish language channels – performed in English but subtitled in Spanish. Intrigued, we watched the whole thing. Reba McEntire plays the Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, Jason Danieley is Lt. Cable, Alec Baldwin is “entrepreneur” Luther Billis, and Brian Stokes Mitchell is plantation owner Emile De Becque. Mitchell is an amazingly powerful baritone who has acted on Broadway, other theaters, on television, and in movies, even providing voice overs. The South Pacific condensed performance is all on stage, with no scenery to speak of and few props – minimal costumes, and many of the performers read from scripts, but all the songs. A chorus of both men (Navy sailors) and women (Navy nurses) provide the chorus and dancing. Unbelievably, it is brilliant. McEntire, of course, is perfect as the naïve Navy nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Baldwin is hilarious as Petty Office Billis. Lillias White (an actor with many credits who won an Emmy for her performance as Lillian Edwards on Sesame Street) us perfect as Bloody Mary, sort of the Tonkinese version of Luther Billis.

When Nellie rejects Emile after she discovers he has mixed-raced children, he commiserates with Lt. Cable, who has also broken it off with Liat, and ends the scene with “This Nearly Was Mine.” With his script in hand, attired in the while coat and tie from the party he had hosted, the lights dim, and he dreams of what can never be and sings

One dream in my heart

One love to be living for

One love to be living for

This nearly was mine

One girl for my dreams

One partner in paradise

This promise of paradise

This nearly was mine

Close to my heart she came

Only to fly away

Only to fly as day flies from moonlight

Now, now I'm alone

Still dreaming of paradise

Still saying that paradise

Once nearly was mine

I'll keep remembering kisses

From lips I've never owned

And all that lovely adventures

That we have never known

He ends with a coda that will bring you to tears, and the audience explodes with applause. I

haven’t heard all the covers of this song – only the “original” sung by Enzio Pinza and a handful of others, but this is my favorite.

Returning to the story, Lt Cable and De Becque go to another island on a military mission. Cable is killed and De Becque is missing. Liat refuses to marry anyone by Lt. Cable, and Nellie must tell her that he has died. Then, Nellie goes to the plantation to console De Becque’s children and while caring for them, also falls in love with them. They cajole her into singing a children’s song, "Dites-Moi," and suddenly, they hear De Becque’s voice singing the song off stage, after which he joins them.

We enjoyed this version of South Pacific so much that I hunted it down on the internet. Our copy burned in the fire, so I bought another copy after we built our house. We made all our kids watch it. I don’t think they like it as much as we do.

I can’t find this version on the platform I’ve been using, so I hope you can access it through this link:

Brian Stokes Mitchell - "This Nearly Was Mine" - from South Pacific