'South Pacific' cast meets veterans of modern wars Hedy Weiss: As soon as director Bartlett Sher began rehearsals for the 2008 Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" -- which, amazingly, marked the musical's only Broadway production since its debut in 1949 -- he arranged for the cast to meet veterans and military historians of both World War II and the war in Iraq. But why did it take six decades for the show to find its way back to Broadway?