I’m a sucker for a sappy musical and ABC is airing a new version of South Pacific tonight. With Glenn Close as Nellie Forbush, you won’t be seeing the short-shorts of Mitzi Gaynor’s potrayal, but Ms. Close does sing adequately. The NY Times review says that Harry Connick Jr. “seems right at home in the show’s woozy romanticism”. Prejudice underpins the plot of this late 1940’s musical and it’s a very good thing that many viewers (I hope) will find trouble relating to the discomfort the main characters feel towards interracial relationships. West Side Story (and, therefore, Romeo & Juliet) has, for me, a more universally recognizable rift that can apply to all sorts of socially mismatched relationships. Ideally, both musicals will become completely historical and hard to relate to for the next generations.