Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea — Reciter and Company There Is No Other Way — Tamate, Observers Four Black Dragons — Fisherman, Thief, Reciter, Townspeople Chrysanthemum Tea — Shogun, Shogun's Mother, Shogun's Wife, Soothsayer, Priests, Shogun's Companion, Physician, Sumo Wrestlers Poems — Kayama, Manjiro Welcome to Kanagawa — Madam and Girls March to the Treaty House — Orchestra Someone in a Tree — Old Man, Reciter, Boy, Warrior Lion Dance — Commodore Perry Act Two Please Hello — Abe, Reciter, American, British, Dutch, Russian and French Admirals A Bowler Hat — Kayama Pretty Lady — Three British Sailors Next — Reciter and Company Critical response and analysis "Someone in a Tree", where two witnesses describe negotiations between the Japanese and Americans, was Sondheim's favorite song out of everything he had written. "A Bowler Hat" presents the show's theme, as a samurai gradually becomes more Westernized as he progressively adopts the habits and affectations of the foreigners he is meant to supervise. “Pretty Lady” is a contrapuntal trio of three British sailors who have mistaken a young girl for a geisha and are attempting to woo her. This is, perhaps, the musical fusion highlight of the show as the orchestra and lays descending parallel 4ths and the singers use a counterpoint form established during the Western Renaissance; again the chord progression is often IV to I, again eschewing Pentatonics. The New York Times review of the original 1976 production said "The lyrics are totally Western and—as is the custom with Mr. Sondheim—devilish, wittily and delightfully clever. Mr. Sondheim is the most remarkable man in the Broadway musical today—and here he shows it victoriously...Mr. Prince's staging uses all the familiar Kabuki tricks—often with voices screeching in the air like lonely sea birds—and stylizations with screens and things, and stagehands all masked in black to make them invisible to the audience. Like choreography, the direction is designed to meld Kabuki with Western forms...the attempt is so bold and the achievement so fascinating, that its obvious faults demand to be overlooked. It tries to soar—sometimes it only floats, sometimes it actually sinks—but it tries to soar. And the music and lyrics are as pretty and as well-formed as a bonsai tree. "Pacific Overtures" is very, very different." Walter Kerr's article in The New York Times on the original 1976 production said "But no amount of performing, or of incidental charm,