Hammerstein

When it comes to Rodgers and Hammerstein, audiences may be more apt to think of "raindrops on roses" than race relations. But the theme of race resonates through many of Rodgers and Hammerstein's best-loved shows -- The King and I, Flower Drum Song and, most prominently, South Pacific. Winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, South Pacific is experiencing a resurgence of interest. In addition to the 2001 TV movie starring Glenn Close, there's a new British revival directed by Trevor Nunn as well as an American touring production, which opens a one-week run at the Mechanic Theatre tomorrow.

John Raitt, blues singer Bonnie Raitt's father, played the role in the original stage version in the 1940s. Frank Sinatra was cast and then replaced by Gordon MacRae in the film version in the 1950s, and Robert Goulet toured on stage in the role in the 1970s. Now Russell Sunday inherits the mantle of Billy Bigelow, the sideshow barker and schemer, in Rodgers' and Hammerstein's romantic musical Carousel which opens at Toby's Dinner Theatre tomorrow and continues through Nov. 18. Sunday, who appeared as young Joe Hardy in Toby's most recent production, Damn Yankees, assumes the role of the hopeless dreamer who captures the heart of Julie Jordan, played by Siobhan Kolker.

Of the many brilliant minds who settled in Bucks County, Pa., playwright George S. Kaufman was the one who came under a cloud. The lanky, bespectacled co-author of "You Can't Take It With You" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" was making headlines in 1936, but not because of his work. Actress Mary Astor had documented her affair with Kaufman (among others) in her diary, and the lurid excerpts that wound up in the newspaper during her acrimonious divorce rivaled anything on stage or screen.

Glenn Close seems a little too tenured to be Nellie Forbush. Rade Sherbedgia doesn't radiate much sensual electricity as Emile de Becque. The passion you are supposed to feel when the two are in each other's company is mainly missing in action. Then there's Harry Connick Jr., as Marine Lt. Joseph Cable. Let's just say he's a lot closer to the young Frank Sintra as a singer than as an actor. And let's not even talk about what they've done to some of the marvelous songs of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, dropping one altogether ("Happy Talk")

It was the first modern American musical - the first to fully interweave plot and music, and the first to deal with serious subject matter and themes. "Show Boat" is also, quite simply, a great work - great in terms of its epic story (adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II from Edna Ferber's novel), its magnificent score (by Jerome Kern and Hammerstein), and its physical size. The touring production at the Lyric Opera House reflects some, but hardly all, of that greatness. Directed by Clayton Phillips, a protege of Harold Prince, this version owes a degree of allegiance to Prince's 1995 Tony Award-winning revival.

It's Rodgers and Hammerstein time in Baltimore. Not only does "The Sound of Music" open at the Lyric Opera House next week, but Loews movie theaters has made the classic Broadway songwriting duo the focus of their fourth annual Theatrical Film Festival to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.This year's festival kicks off on Sunday with a 2 p.m. screening of "South Pacific," starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, at Loews Valley Centre Theatre, 9616 Reisterstown Road, Owings Mills.The musical, based on a story from James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific," celebrated its 50th anniversary in April.

Though the hills of Carroll County will never be mistaken for the Austrian Alps, they will come alive with "The Sound of Music" Thursday when Theatre on the Hill performs the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic at Western Maryland College.Proceeds from the show will benefit Shepherd's Staff, a local nonprofit organization that provides Carroll residents with emergency prescriptions, school supplies and other items. The group is hoping to raise $5,000."Each year, we put on three benefit performances for local charities.

If you have any doubts about the quality of musicals being presented by local groups, head over to Baldwin Hall in Millersville some time over the next two weekends, where the Pasadena Theater Company makes the hills come alive with "The Sound of Music."The 29-member cast, under the direction of Chuck Dick, re-creates the story of the Trapp family, who fled Austria in 1938 just ahead of the Nazis. The players seem to be living their parts rather than merely playing them.Eight musicians provide accompaniment under the confident baton of Roger Compton.

Mandy Patinkin makes up his own private story for every song he sings in concert -- but don't ask him what they are. He's not telling."All I want you to see is someone connected to the words," he says, speaking by car phone as he drives along the Palisades Parkway to his home in New York City."

Oscar Hammerstein, who died in 1961, is getting a 100th birthday party on Maryland Public Television tonight, for his lyrics live on through some of the best musicals of the American theater.* "Love and War" (8 p.m.-8:30 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Quickee quiz: Who was Jay Thomas' first co-star in this sitcom? Although not renewed for fall, it's back for a few weeks to run out the string of episodes never aired. Quickee answer: In the fall of 1993, Annie Potts took over from Susan Dey, who was dumped after dim ratings in the first season.