The Community Choir of the Grand Prairie will present music from the Broadway show "South Pacific" at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 17 at the First United Methodist Church, located at 307 E. Fourth St. in Stuttgart.

This is part of the Lennox Performing Arts Series, Chuck Law, director of the Arts Center of the Grand Prairie and director of the choir, said. He explained he that he acquired the music from Texas and New York City. A small children's choir will also be added into the mix on Monday night.

The show will cost adults $10 and $5 for children 12-years-old and under. The money will go to support programs at the arts center, community choir and the brass group Majestic Brass, which are all supported by the Arts Center of the Grand Prairie.

The arrangement will include soloist performances by local vocalists.

With "South Pacific," Rodgers and Hammerstein rose to new towering heights of success, both commercially and artistically, following their triumph with "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel." There was hardly any question in anybody's mind at the première performance of South Pacific that this was a classic of the musical theatre of the stature of "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel," according to www.theatrehistory.com.

The critic Richard Watts, Jr., described it as "a thrilling and exultant musical play, an utterly captivating work of theatrical art".

The response at the box-office was as exultant as that of critics and veteran theatre-goers. "South Pacific" ran five years on Broadway with 1,925 performances, earning $9 million. The tour of the national company over a period of several years earned several more millions. The motion picture adaptation grossed domestically more than $16 million dollars, the sixth highest at that time in the history of talking pictures in America.

South Pacific played two and a half years in London, after which the company went on a tour that lasted another year and a half. It was also given in foreign translations in many other leading European capitals. The sheet music and the long-playing score also sold in record numbers. The name "South Pacific" was licensed for cosmetics, dresses and lingerie. In addition to all this, South Pacific received most of the coveted awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Award as the season's best musical, seven Antoinette Perry and nine Donaldson Awards.

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