“a wonderful guy.” “Uh-huh,” says Nellie, and makes a hasty
exit. “Uh-huh” is not the full expression of her realization. The
full expression is the orchestra’s playing the music that signifies
her love, plus the irony of the Captain’s casual remark.^3
The underscoring carries into the next scene, “but now in-
creases in tempo and gaiety” as the nurses cross the stage with
their taunting version of “She’s in love with a won—” (this is
cut short by Nellie’s refusal to acknowledge their frivolity).
Then Nellie crosses to what is now a moonlit scene on the
beach, and the orchestra continues the theme. Hammerstein’s
stage direction asks for a “symphonic arrangement of that same
metrical line, ‘I’m in love,’ with key changes and heartbreaking
persistence in its repetition as Nellie walks on.” This time Nel-
lie gets to say something. Her “I know what counts now” solil-
oquy leads the orchestra to play a reprise of “Some enchanted
evening,” which Nellie joins on the second line. The under-
scoring orchestra is in tune with the recognitions and feelings of
the characters, and is one step ahead of anything the characters
can say.
Underscoring can rearrange the structure of a number and
distribute its elements beneath the spoken dialogue. The ef-
fect of this melodramatic technique is to maintain a musical
continuity during what would otherwise be dialogue scenes.
The orchestra’s quotations from “I’m in Love with a Wonder-
ful Guy” in the example from South Pacificoutlined above sus-
tains musical time as the pulse of the scene, replacing what
would normally be book time with a sense that a number is on
the verge of occurring. This expectation is satisfied when Nel-
lie sings her reprise of “Some Enchanted Evening.” She sings
only sixteen measures, but the allusion to a complete number
heard earlier is distinct. This is melodrama in the true sense
THE ORCHESTRA 131
(^3) Act 2, scene 8. The underscoring, not always specified in published libretti,
is spelled out in the earliest New York Public Library script, RM 742, checked
against the libretto published in England by Chappell and Williamson Music
Ltd., no date. For further discussion of South Pacific, see Mordden, Beautiful
Mornin’, pp. 261–67; Mordden, Rodgers and Hammerstein, pp. 107–26; and
Most, Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical, pp. 153–82.