Los Angeles — In "South Pacific," the island of Bali Ha'i exerts an irresistible pull on U.S. soldiers stationed just across the water.
It proved equally alluring for Glenn Close, who jumped at the chance to star in a TV movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on James Michener's World War II book.
Glenn Close and Rade Sherbedgia star in "Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific," a three-hour movie musical derived from James Michener's collection of stories, "Tales of the South Pacific." The movie, a version of the original Broadway musical, was filmed in Australia and airs on ABC Monday.
"It was my first musical memory. I couldn't see the top of the record player, but I remember watching it spin around and hearing Mary Martin sing 'Dites-Moi,"' Close recalled in an interview. "That sound has been with me my whole life, and I wanted to play that character ever since I can remember."
She takes on Army nurse and cockeyed optimist Nellie Forbush the role originated by Martin in the 1949 Broadway play in a three-hour ABC movie airing at 7 p.m. Monday.
Most of the famed numbers, including "Dites-Moi," "Some Enchanted Evening" and "There is Nothin' Like a Dame," are intact. But changes have been made to fit the move from stage to screen.
It's a rethinking that wasn't attempted in the 1958 film version starring Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi, according to executive producers Lawrence Cohen and Michael Gore.
"The movie was simply sort of a transplant of the show on a beach," Cohen said. "We wanted to go back to Michener's stories, his first after the war. They are remarkably fresh and frank pieces of storytelling that we thought could enhance this material and tell it in a much more realistic way."
Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" and the musical based on it were Pulitzer Prize winners.
Set on a remote island pulled into the war, the story follows two sets of star-crossed lovers: Nellie and French plantation owner Emile de Becque (Rade Sherbedgia), and Lt. Joseph Cable (Harry Connick Jr.) and Liat (Natalie Mendoza).
Racial bigotry and war's violence affect the couples, with the musical score conveying both harsh reality and unabashed romanticism.
To enhance the reality, the producers changed the order of the songs and opened up the play with filming in Queensland, Australia, and on Moorea in Tahiti.
(Dropped were "Happy Talk" and "My Girl Back Home," although the latter, performed by Connick, is featured on the Columbia Records compact disc released in conjunction with the film.)
A famously unseen moment in the play when Nellie and Emile first spot each other across a room, referred to in the lyrics of "Some Enchanted Evening" is depicted in the film.
Also shown is a skirmish that pits the Frenchman and Joe Cable against Japanese troops and ends in tragedy.
The casting took a different path as well. Close, who appeared on Broadway in "Sunset Boulevard" and other plays, has sterling musical theater credentials.
But the actress, a luminescent 54, is older than the wide-eyed Nellie has been previously portrayed, something Close admits gave her pause.
She found inspiration close to home. She's blessed, Close said, "with an extremely enthusiastic father."
"I know what it's like to have somebody who's basically a cockeyed optimist. That's nothing to do with age or even naivete. It's somebody who feels this life is worth hope."
Close, who also served as an executive producer, had no doubts about how the other roles should be cast.
"Our vision from the very beginning was to find actors, really strong actors, who happened to be able to sing, not the other way around," she said. (All the actors in this film did their own singing.)
The role of Bloody Mary, for example, is played by New York actress Lori Tan Chinn, who was picked not for her singing but her "take-no-prisoners" performance, Cohen said.
The casting of Sherbedgia ("Mission Impossible: 2," "Snatch") as de Becque departed from the conventional approach of using an opera singer in the role.
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