Disenchanted Evening

On records and on paper, a Paris Opera basso, Roger Rico, seemed a natural to enter Broadway's South Pacific in the role that the Met's Ezio Pinza* created two years ago. After listening to his records and noting that he would be the first real Frenchman to play the hit musical's French planter, Co-Producers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II sent for Rico, auditioned and hired him.

Rico's seven weeks of rehearsal posed a special problem: he speaks no English. Patiently, with the help of a wire recorder, he learned his lines phonetically while studying a French translation to learn what they meant. Last week, when the time came for Rico to begin his 15-month contract run in the show, Manhattan reviewers were invited to the debut.

While admiring his voice, the critics greeted Rico's performance with a polite calm that none seemed able to maintain in the hot flush of first seeing South Pacific. The New York Times noted, half apologetically, that Rico, at 41, seemed a bit young for the middle-aged role, and that he had "a tendency to overaccentuate his facial expressions." Struggling tensely with his phonetic English, he projected no notable charm or sex appeal. Above all, he lacked the support of Pinza's costar, Mary Martin, whose place has been taken, but not exactly filled, by Martha Wright.

At week's end, however, even with the second team playing, South Pacific's standees were still turning up as regularly as its cast, and the end of its phenomenal popularity seemed nowhere in sight.

* For news of Pinza's latest role, see CINEMA.

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