Fish story
Greater Tuna is as on target today as it was 20 years ago.

By Brad Rosenstein

IT'S BEEN 20 years since Joe Sears and Jaston Williams first put the "third smallest town in Texas" on the theatrical map, and it's been there ever since. Greater Tuna has not only spawned two sequels but has also become an industry for its two stars. Together with their cowriter and director Ed Howard, they've crafted a saga that reflects and captures countless changes in America's social and political weather, and it seems to be outlasting them all. Born in the dark days of Reagan and the senior George Bush, the show's insights into the roots of Texas-grown "compassionate conservatism" have new meaning as Bush Jr. prowls the White House.

If Greater Tuna's unashamedly liberal barbs remain surprising in a mainstream hit, it's definitely an equal opportunity satire. In the 20 men, women, and animals that Sears and Williams create through lightning-fast changes of costume and character, you see both a town and a world come alive. The glory of the show is its heart, open wide to every shade of human behavior and often reveling in its darkest corners. Perhaps only Sears could make Aunt Pearl Burras, a serial dog-poisoner, into an immensely appealing figure, just as Williams's Stanley Bumiller compassionately conveys the depth of hurt that can drive a sensitive soul to murder.

But beyond all that, the show is, of course, often hilarious, and the two men's precise characterizations and faultless timing still take my breath away. Sears and Williams certainly show no signs of needing a rest, but I did detect elements of weariness here and there, and these two astonishingly talented actors have definitely earned the right to move on. Their skills as playwrights have improved with each chapter of the Tuna trilogy, and their gifts as satirists are urgently needed now. Tuna's Vera Carp and her fellow Smut Snatchers of the New Order, out to wipe the library shelves clean and make the world understand "the other side of bigotry," seem pretty tame next to the infinitely more insidious brands of censorship now abroad in the land. I can't wait to see these guys take a crack at that one day soon.

Gone south

I'm not sure it's the greatest honor Richard Rodgers will receive in his centennial year, but a new production of his and Oscar Hammerstein II's South Pacific has washed up at the Golden Gate Theatre. It stars Robert Goulet as Emile de Becque, and to say he ain't no Ezio Pinza is to say far too little. On opening night he spent most of the first act intoning rather than singing his songs, and while he's still got the same impressive vocal power he's always had, any sense of nuance or emotional shading gets obliterated in his blaring glides toward the proper notes. His performance as the island's notable Frenchman consists mostly of ending every line with a quasi-Gallic "eh?"

Goulet isn't the only problem with this dispirited production. Unlike the inspired recent reimaginings of Carousel and Oklahoma!, no one here seems to have spent much time thinking over what South Pacific could be. It's a piece that needs further consideration, because aside from its brilliant score, its once daring mix of eroticism and racism gets a stumbling treatment in the dated libretto. And you have to wonder what an embarrassing caricature like Bloody Mary is doing in the same show with a song like "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." To really work for a contemporary audience South Pacific needs a lot more tweaking than the minor cuts it gets here.

Veteran Broadway director Jerry Zaks is mysteriously credited as "production consultant," but Scott Faris's plodding direction doesn't approach the material with the slightest freshness of vision. The production's few new twists are often downright bizarre, such as Gary Chryst's Martha Graham-esque choreography for Liat smack-dab in the middle of "Happy Talk." Amanda Watkins works hard as Nellie and has a few charming moments, but there is zero chemistry between her and Goulet. Lewis Cleale sings well as Cable but has a rough time making this dull character shine, Gretha Boston does fine work trying to imbue Bloody Mary with some dignity, and David Warshofsky is a bright spot of energy as Billis. The best you can say of this South Pacific is that it's not nearly as bad as the recent TV version starring Glenn Close – but perhaps few things could be.

'Greater Tuna' runs Wed/31-Sat/3, 8 p.m. (also Sat/3, 2 p.m.); Sun/4, 2 p.m., Curran Theatre, 445 Geary, S.F. (415) 551-2000. $25-$56. 'South Pacific' runs through Aug. 18. Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m. (also Wed. and Sat., 2 p.m.); Sun., 2 p.m., Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor, S.F. $34-$77. www.bestofbroadway-sf.com.