South Pacific was judged a masterpiece on the night it opened more than 50 years ago. You guess its greatness in the overture, which rolls out melodies that live in the national consciousness (“Some Enchanted Evening,” “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” “Bali Ha'i,” “Younger than Springtime” and a whole lot more.)

        Then it weaves a dramatic tapestry of America at war in the South Seas, where love and sacrifice and unreasoning prejudice play out in an arena in which every moment may be the last.

        Nothing can make South Pacific anything less than one of the great American musicals. But its presentation can be more or less effective.

        Currently touring to the Aronoff as part of Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series, this South Pacific is less effective.

        The show looks great, it sounds great, but you won't believe any of it.

        Robert Goulet joined the cast on Tuesday as French planter Emile de Becque. (Media were requested to give him two performances to test his sea legs before reviewing.)

        He is in fine voice and he's charming as can be. It's easy to buy him as a man of conviction, but the romance with nurse Nellie Forbush (Amanda Watkins) is flatly unbelievable.

        It doesn't help that while Emile is supposed to be twice Nellie's age, Mr. Goulet is actually three times Ms. Watkins'. He's aged well, but he does look — and move — like his age. That's a lot of suspension of disbelief.

        Ms. Watkins performs Nellie's songs and dances persuasively, but take out her love story and her character deflates.

        Ms. Watkins is also saddled with Nellie's motivation for breaking off her romance — Emile fathered two children by a Polynesian woman several years earlier. It looks mighty feeble to contemporary eyes.

        The production suffers from a general lack of necessary emotional urgency. These people are living at the edge of a war, which ultimately touches them to the soul. Professional tours are supposed to get it right.

        Director Scott Faris adds some wonderful, fresh touches to the production, including some double entendre line readings that are very funny. Choreographer Gary Chryst has the inspired idea to rev up “Happy Talk” with Balinese dance for beautiful native girl Liat (Kisha Howard, who dances like a dream.)

        Lewis Cleale plays Lt. Joe Cable, tragically in love with Liat. What a voice, and he acts the role well, but he doesn't have the drop-dead virility that should play to the balcony from the instant he steps on stage.

        I'll wager the ladies in the audience felt what they were supposed to when it was Mr. Goulet playing Joe Cable almost 50 years ago.
        South Pacific, through next Sunday, Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center Procter & Gamble Hall, 241-7469.

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