Like Oklahoma!, South Pacific yielded a remarkable number of songs that became popular apart from the show: 'Some Enchanted Evening,' 'There Is Nothin' Like a Dame,' 'Bali Ha'i,' 'I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,' 'A Wonderful Guy,' and 'Younger Than Springtime.' A film version, also directed by Logan, was released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1958 starring Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, and France Nuyen. South Pacific starred Mary Martin, in her first Rodgers and Hammerstein show, and Metropolitan basso Ezio Pinza in his Broadway debut, and was co-produced and directed by Logan.

They decided to combine two stories, 'Fo' Dolla'' and 'Our Heroine,' and the resulting musical went on to win Rodgers and Hammerstein their second Pulitzer Prize in a decade (the first was for Oklahoma! in 1943). Director Josh Logan suggested that Rodgers and Hammerstein base a musical theater production on one of the short stories from James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, winner of a 1948 Pulitzer Prize. The phenomenal success of Oklahoma! and Carousel had made Rodgers and Hammerstein the dominant figures in American musical theater South Pacific only added to their stature and reputation. It was the fifth collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), following Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel and State Fair (1945), and Allegro (1947). With Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in the lead roles, the musical South Pacific opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York on April 7, 1949, and ran for 1,925 performances.

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