Can TV capture the excitement of 'South Pacific'?

From the moment it opened in April, 2008, "South Pacific" has been my answer to skepticism about the necessity of live theater.

So what's it doing on TV?

We'll know at 8 p.m. Aug. 17, when the Lincoln Center Theater's vibrantly, insistently in-the-moment revival will be beamed - live and in real time - to home screens, compliments of "Live From Lincoln Center" on PBS.

It is hard to name a recent Broadway project more deserving of prime-time national exposure. And, since director Bartlett Sher's ravishing production closes its record-breaking, Tony-encrusted run next Sunday with Kelli O'Hara, Paulo Szot and most of the original cast, the timing could not be better.

On the other hand, it's at least as difficult to imagine a production with stronger ties to the warm pulse and beating heart of the live experience. John Goberman, executive producer of the series, clearly understands the protective feelings the show has ignited in theatergoers. He has overseen live telecasts of Lincoln Center's dance, orchestra concerts and New York City Opera. (The Met has its separate deal with broadcasts into theaters, etc.)

Goberman talks knowingly about the need to "capture the majesty of this live performance," which he has been lusting to tape since it first opened. To prepare, he, Sher and TV director Alan Skog have done two trial runs this weekend and will do another at Tuesday's performance. Even with smart people and 11 cameras, there is always danger. "With live performance, everybody takes risks on the stage," he says. "With live broadcasts, everybody is also taking the risks on the air."

We should have a good idea of the success as early as the overture. In what has become an iconic shock to modern Broadway sensibilities, the stage of the Beaumont Theater slides back during the overture to reveal the full splendor of a 30-piece pit orchestra - in formal dress, yet - luxuriating in the suddenly new sound of the familiar overture. How can such a wow moment be translated to a medium where digital wizardry is found in the dumbest commercials?

That's a secret. In the meantime, Goberman, who makes me laugh, says we just may be asked to "put a blanket on the TV" and, when it comes time to see the big orchestra, we'll be instructed "to pull the blanket off." All this, and no special 3-D glasses?

The production has always been its own special effect, reintroducing us to a 1949 Rodgers-and-Hammerstein chestnut we thought we knew from summer stock and the sluggish 1958 movie. Here is the sweeping poetic vista of the exotic island in the South Seas, and the frisson of all those boisterous all-American soldier boys juxtaposed with a trusting ignorance of the deep bigotry and deep love, the courage and almost unbearable loss to come.

Somehow, Sher masterminded a big, luscious production with the emotional intimacy of a chamber musical. He found the timely darkness in James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II story while trusting the Rodgers and Hammerstein score and Joshua Logan book with a touching sense of old-time wonderment.

The goal, according to Goberman, is "to bring you close to what you'd see when sitting in the theater." Despite revolutions in digital technology, live theater and TV are two different creatures. TV gives a quick perceptual fix while we are free to do other business around the house. Theater locks us in, then takes its own sweet - and sometimes deadly - time.

There are decisions to be made about live audiences. Laughter in the theater makes us feel part of a community. But laughter in the theater when we're watching TV can pull us out of the moment altogether. Can infinitesimal subtleties of texture be squeezed through what most of us still have for TV speakers? Can big, live emotions be squashed into that little bitty can - even if the can is an HD flat screen that takes up half a room?

What TV can do, and theater cannot, is include live interviews during the breaks. "South Pacific" will have plenty of those, and Alan Alda as our host.

Once, somewhere near the beginning of time, TV was meant to be a medium for live theater. In the so-called golden age of television, of course, every day was "Saturday Night Live." (Tina Fey clearly feels the difference. On Oct. 14, "30 Rock" will be a live episode - twice - one for each coast.) But in a world where everything and anything can be copied and shared or saved for later, theater still requires we make an appointment with ourselves to attend.

In an attempt to duplicate that now-or-never feeling (and to avoid union requirements), "South Pacific" will be shown live and, except for a couple of repeats (Aug. 20 at 12:30 a.m. and Aug. 22 at 12:30 p.m.), never again. You can demand all you want, but this will not be available on-demand. Of course, nobody yet has figured out a way to tell that to my DVR.