Kelli O’Hara To Leave South Pacific Due to Pregnancy

Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara will depart the Broadway production of South Pacific in which she plays the lead role of Nellie Forbush in March as she and her husband Greg Naughton are expecting their first child in July.

No exact date has been set for O’Hara’s departure, nor has it been officially determined when and if she will return to the show. No replacement has currently been named.

Tony winner Bartlett Sher directs the musical, based on James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, and featuring music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, and a book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Ted Sperling conducts a 30-piece orchestra performing the original 1949 orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and dance and incidental music arranged by Trude Rittmann.

The production currently stars David Pittsinger, Danny Burstein, Loretta Ables Sayre, and Andrew Samonsky. Original star Paulo Szot is expected to return to the leading role of Emile de Becque in March.

For more information, visit www.lct.org.