Written in 1949, this classic musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, South Pacific is one of the earliest musicals to explore the difficult issues of racial prejudice through social commentary and song. The stories utilized in the musical are drawn from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, which weaves together a plot through the multiple characters featured in several different stories. As the play gears up for a new production at the Barbican Theatre in London in the summer of 2011, fans seek South Pacific tickets to see Tony-Award winner Paulo Szot shine in person.