Flesh & Bloody Mary

Sheila Francisco, an under-rated character actress who clinched choice roles in back-to-back Trumpets musicals The Little Mermaid and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, has earned rave reviews for her role as Bloody Mary in the Royal National Theater’s revival of South Pacific.

Handpicked by renowned director Trevor Nunn after auditions in the American mainland failed to produce the voice he wanted, Sheila disarmed fellow actors and critical British audiences with her big carressing voice and comic dynamism, earning glowing remarks from even the most jaded theater critics.

Flying to London immediately upon endorsement by the British Council to Embassy officials, Shiela shook off jetlag by praying along the Thames, and walked straight into the rnt in costume–barely a few hours after landing at Heathrow. Nunn and the rest of the production staff were already intrigued by a demo tape she sent which was a recording of one of Chinggoy Alonso’s corporate gigs for Sunlife. But when she entered the theater, they knew she was James Michener’s Bloody Mary come to life.

The lavish revival, which was funded in part by Cameron Mackintosh, was eagerly anticipated by London’s theater-going public, given the caliber of the artistic team. Director Trevor Nunn, currently the rnt’s artistic director, has been credited for the most successful musical ventures of Andrew Lloyd Webber–Cats, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard–and was also responsible for the original production of Les Miserables. At 28, he was already the youngest artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which he lead for 18 years. His directorial credits also include the Emmy Award-winning version of Nichols Nickleby, and the Glenda Jackson-starrer Hedda.

Choreographer Matthew Bourne’s career has been one of the most extraordinary in British dance. A product of the Laban Center, he took British ballet–specifically male ballet–out, not so much of the closet as the rarified cultural ghetto and dragged it to center stage, through his company, Adventures in Motion Pictures. amp, through sensational works like Swan Lake and Cinderella, created dramas and comedies that bridged the gulf between theater and the dance world. Bourne’s connection with the National began with the much-acclaimed team-up with Nunn on My Fair Lady.

Nunn and Bourne reinterpret and reposition South Pacific with greater intimacy, making the show more affecting in order to overcome the audience’s cynicism and knowingness. Nunn even projects a collage of newsreel film from the Pacific onto a cyclindrical screen and throws in a couple of real, live jeeps for atmosphere. Bourne incorporates Tonkinese style rhythm in the characters’ movements, rather than being all-American, since most of his cast were not professional dancers with classical training. Philip Quast’s Emile de Becque is not a tall, god-like figure, but a dumpy, rumpled one, consumed with worry that nurse Nellie Forbush (played by American actress Lauren Kennedy) will not return his affections.

But it is the re-working of Bloody Mary into a full-blooded woman as against the usual grinning cartoon that ignites Sheila Francisco’s star into brilliance. Nunn makes her deliver the second-act Happy Talk ironically as an act of near-desperation.

Indeed, it is the resurrection of Oscar Hammerstein’s darker theme of racial prejudice that becomes Nunn’s boldest statement against a society that fosters it–right when Islamophobia is gripping the Western world. And Sheila’s intensity as a singer and as an actress are buoyed by the focus he gives to her role. As critics note:

"In interpretive terms, the show’s primary coup rests with the hefty (in every sense) Bloody Mary of Sheila Francisco, who positions the role well away from the roly-poly comic relief presented by Bertice Reading in the show’s last London revival."–Variety Magazine

"The highlight of the show is Sheila Francisco’s gleefully opportunistic Bloody Mary, a round ball of a woman who can easily out-fleece the troops."–Footloose

"Sheila Francisco is a comic and pathetic dynamo of emotions in good voice."–Evening Standard

"Sheila Francisco, as wide as she is tall, offers great entertainment value and steals the show."–The Telegraph.