The recent Chichester Festival Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific will remount in summer 2022 for a U.K. and Ireland tour. Julian Ovenden and Gina Beck will reprise their roles as Emile and Nellie for the tour's first stops at Manchester Opera House and Sadler's Wells, London.

The production was originally scheduled for to run in 2020, but was rescheduled for the 2021 season at CFT. It will open at Manchester Opera House July 16, 2022, then run at Sadler's Wells July 27–August 28. The tour has stops planned for Dublin, Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, and Canterbury.

Ovenden's West End credits include All About Eve, Marguerite, Merrily We Roll Along and Grand Hotel. He's appeared on Broadway in Showboat and Butley, and as Charles Blake in ITV’s Downton Abbey. Beck is a West End leading lady regular, having appeared as Glinda in Wicked, Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Honey in Matilda, Magnolia in Showboat, and Cosette in Les Misérables.

Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee Daniel Evans directs the production, with set and costume design by Peter McKintosh, lighting by Howard Harrison, sound design by Paul Groothuis, video design by Giillian Tan, and choreography and movement direction from Ann Yee. Nigel Lilley serves as musical supervisor, with Cat Beveridge as musical director and David Cullen and Theo Jamieson providing new orchestrations (original Broadway orchestrations are Robert Russell Bennett). Casting is by Charlotte Sutton CDG, with additional children’s casting by Verity Naughton.

South Pacific is produced by Jamie Wilson, Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, and Gavin Kalin. Additional casting will be announced later.