It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his seventeenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote.
It tells the story of the "mad" knight, Don Quixote, as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.[1]
The work is not, and does not pretend to be, a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or of Don Quixote.
Wasserman complained repeatedly about taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.[2][3]
The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
The musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.[4]
The principal song, "The Impossible Dream", became a standard. The musical has played in many other countries around the world, with productions in Dutch, French (translation by Jacques Brel), German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Icelandic, Gujarati, Uzbek, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swahili, Finnish, Ukrainian and nine distinctly different dialects of the Spanish language.[5]
Man of La Mancha was first performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1964, and had its New York premiere on the thrust stage of the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in 1965.[6]
| Man of La Mancha | |
|---|---|
Original Playbill
|
|
| Music | Mitch Leigh |
| Lyrics | Joe Darion |
| Book | Dale Wasserman |
| Basis | I, Don Quixote (teleplay) by Dale Wasserman and Don Quixote (novel) by Miguel de Cervantes |
| Productions | 1964 Goodspeed Opera House 1965 Broadway 1972 Broadway revival 1972 Film 1977 Broadway revival 1992 Broadway revival 1997 Madrid 2002 Broadway revival 2014 Brazil revival 2015 Buenos Aires revival |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Score |
History
Man of La Mancha started as a non-musical teleplay written by Dale Wasserman for CBS's DuPont Show of the Month program.This original telecast starred Lee J. Cobb, Colleen Dewhurst (who replaced Viveca Lindfors), and Eli Wallach, and was not performed on a thrust stage, but on a television sound stage.
The DuPont Corporation disliked the title Man of La Mancha, thinking that its viewing audience would not know what La Mancha actually meant, so a new title, I, Don Quixote, was chosen.
The play was broadcast live on November 9, 1959, with an estimated audience of 20 million.[7]
Unfortunately, due to the production being staged in the early days of videotape, and due to the inferiority of kinescopes, no footage of this production survives.
Years after this television broadcast, and after the original teleplay had been unsuccessfully optioned as a non-musical Broadway play, director Albert Marre called Wasserman and suggested that he turn his play into a musical.
Mitch Leigh was selected as composer, with orchestrations by Carlyle W. Hall.
Unusually for the time, the show was scored for an orchestra with no violins or other traditional orchestral stringed instruments apart from a double bass, instead making heavier use of brass, woodwinds, percussion and utilizing flamenco guitars as the only stringed instruments of any sort.[8]
The original lyricist of the musical was poet W. H. Auden, but his lyrics were discarded, some of them considered too overtly satiric and biting, attacking the bourgeois audience at times.
Auden's lyrics were replaced by those of Joe Darion.[9]
Productions
The musical first played at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 1965. Rex Harrison was to be the original star of this production, but although Harrison had starred in a musical role in the stage and film versions of My Fair Lady, the musical demands of the role of Don Quixote were too heavy for him.After 21 previews, the musical opened at the experimental thrust-stage ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village on November 22, 1965.
The show moved uptown to the Martin Beck Theatre on March 20, 1968, then to the Eden Theatre on March 3, 1971, and finally to the Mark Hellinger Theatre on May 26, 1971 for its last month, a total original New York run of 2,329 performances.
Musical staging and direction were by Albert Marre, choreography was by Jack Cole, and Howard Bay was the scenic and lighting designer, with costumes by Bay and Patton Campbell.[4]
Richard Kiley won a Tony Award for his performance as Cervantes/Quixote in the original production, and it made Kiley a bona fide Broadway star.[10]
Kiley was replaced in the original Broadway run by, first, Jose Ferrer on Broadway and in the 1966 National Tour, and then, operatic baritone David Atkinson.
Atkinson also performed Cervantes/Quixote in the 1968 National Tour and for all of the matinee performances in the 1972 Broadway revival which also starred Kiley.[11]
The original cast also included Irving Jacobson (Sancho), Ray Middleton (Innkeeper), Robert Rounseville (The Padre), and Joan Diener (Aldonza). John Cullum, Hal Holbrook, and Lloyd Bridges also played Cervantes and Don Quixote during the run of the production.[4]
Keith Andes also played the role.
The musical was performed on a single set that suggested a dungeon.
All changes in location were created by alterations in the lighting, by the use of props supposedly lying around the floor of the dungeon, and by reliance on the audience's imagination. More recent productions, however, have added more scenery.[12][13]
The original West End London production was at the Piccadilly Theatre, opening on April 24, 1968 and running for 253 performances. Keith Michell starred, with Joan Diener reprising her original role and Bernard Spear as Sancho.[14][15][16]
The play has been revived on Broadway four times:[4]
- 1972 – with Richard Kiley as Cervantes/Quixote, running for 140 performances
- 1977 – with Richard Kiley as Cervantes/Quixote, Tony Martinez as Sancho Panza and Emily Yancy as Aldonza/Dulcinea, running for 124 performances
- 1992 – with Raúl Juliá as Cervantes/Quixote and Sheena Easton as Aldonza/Dulcinea, running for 108 performances. Easton was replaced, late in the run, by Joan Diener.
- 2002 – with Brian Stokes Mitchell as Cervantes/Quixote, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Aldonza/Dulcinea, and Ernie Sabella as Sancho Panza, running for 304 performances; Marin Mazzie took over as Aldonza (Dulcinea) on July 1, 2003. This production featured Scenic and Costume Design by Paul Brown, Lighting Design by Paul Gallo, Sound design by Tony Meola and Projection design by Elaine J. McCarthy.
Hal Linden played Quixote in the show's 1988 U.S. National tour,[18] and Robert Goulet played Quixote in the 1997–98 U.S. National tour.[19]
A studio-made recording of the score was released in 1996, conducted by Paul Gemignani and starring Plácido Domingo as Quixote, Mandy Patinkin as Sancho, Julia Migenes as Aldonza, Jerry Hadley as the Priest and Samuel Ramey as the Innkeeper.[20]
In 2014, Man of La Mancha featured as part of the Stratford Festival, in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.[21]
The Shakespeare Theatre Company produced Man of La Mancha as part of their 2014-2015 season. The production starred Anthony Warlow as Quixote.[22]
Synopsis
It is the late sixteenth century, failed author-soldier-actor and tax collector Miguel de Cervantes has been thrown into a dungeon by the Spanish Inquisition, along with his manservant.They have been charged with foreclosing on a monastery. The two have brought all their possessions with them into the dungeon. There, they are attacked by their fellow prisoners, who instantly set up a mock trial.
If Cervantes is found guilty, he will have to hand over all his possessions.
Cervantes agrees to do so, except for a precious manuscript which the prisoners are all too eager to burn. He asks to be allowed to offer a defense, and the defense will be a play, acted out by him and all the prisoners. The "judge", a sympathetic criminal called "the Governor", agrees.
Cervantes takes out a makeup kit from his trunk, and the manservant helps him get into a costume.
In a few short moments, Cervantes has transformed himself into Alonso Quijana, an old gentleman who has read so many books of chivalry and thought so much about injustice that he has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant.
Quijana renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza. (Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote))
Don Quixote warns Sancho that the pair are always in danger of being attacked by Quixote's mortal enemy, an evil magician known as the Enchanter. Suddenly he spots a windmill. Seeing its sails whirling, he mistakes it for a four-armed giant, attacks it, and receives a beating from the encounter.
He thinks he knows why he has been defeated: It is because he has not been properly dubbed a knight.
Looking off, he imagines he sees a castle (it is really a rundown roadside inn). He orders Sancho to announce their arrival by blowing his bugle, and the two proceed to the inn.
Cervantes talks some prisoners into assuming the roles of the inn's serving wench and part-time prostitute Aldonza and a group of muleteers, who are propositioning her. Fending them off sarcastically (It's All The Same), she eventually deigns to accept their leader, Pedro, who pays in advance.
Don Quixote enters with Sancho, upset at not having been "announced" by a "dwarf". The Innkeeper (played by The Governor) treats them sympathetically and humors Don Quixote, but when Quixote catches sight of Aldonza, he believes her to be the lady Dulcinea, to whom he has sworn eternal loyalty (Dulcinea).
Aldonza, used to being roughly handled, is flabbergasted, then annoyed, at Quixote's strange and kind treatment of her, and is further aggravated when the Muleteers turn Quixote's tender ballad into a mocking serenade.
Meanwhile, Antonia, Don Quixote's niece, has gone with Quixote's housekeeper to seek advice from the local priest, who realizes that the two women are more concerned with the embarrassment the knight's madness may bring than with his welfare (I'm Only Thinking of Him).
The mock-trial's prosecutor, a cynic called "The Duke", is chosen by Cervantes to play Dr. Sanson Carrasco, Antonia's fiancé, a man just as cynical and self-centered as the prisoner who is playing him.
Carrasco is upset at the idea of having a madman in his prospective new family but the padre cleverly convinces him that it would be a challenge worthy of his abilities to cure his prospective uncle-in-law, so he and the priest set out to bring Don Quixote back home (I'm Only Thinking of Him [Reprise]).
Back at the inn, Sancho delivers a missive from Don Quixote to Aldonza courting her favor and asking for a token. Instead, Aldonza tosses an old dishrag at Sancho, but to Don Quixote the dishrag is a silken scarf.
When Aldonza asks Sancho why he follows Quixote, he can come up with no explanation other than I Really Like Him. Alone, Aldonza ponders the Knight's behavior and her inability to laugh at him (What Do You Want of Me?)
In the courtyard, the muleteers once again taunt her with a suggestive song (Little Bird, Little Bird). Pedro makes arrangements with Aldonza for an assignation later.
The priest and Dr. Carrasco arrive, but cannot reason with Don Quixote, who suddenly spots a barber wearing his shaving basin on his head to ward off the sun's heat (The Barber's Song).
Quixote immediately snatches the basin from the barber at sword's point, believing it to be the miraculous Golden Helmet of Mambrino, which will make him invulnerable. Dr. Carrasco and the priest leave, with the priest impressed by Don Quixote's view of life and wondering if curing him is really worthwhile (To Each His Dulcinea).
Meanwhile, Quixote asks the Innkeeper to dub him knight. The innkeeper agrees, but first Quixote must stand vigil all night over his armor.
Quixote asks to be guided to the "chapel" for his vigil, and the Innkeeper hastily concocts an excuse: the "chapel" is "being repaired". Quixote decides to keep his vigil in the courtyard. As he does so, Aldonza, on her way to her rendezvous with Pedro, finally confronts him, but Quixote gently explains why he behaves the way he does (The Impossible Dream).
Pedro enters, furious at being kept waiting, and slaps Aldonza. Enraged, Don Quixote takes him and all the other muleteers on in a huge fight, (The Combat).
Don Quixote has no martial skill, but by luck and determination – and with the help of Aldonza and Sancho – he prevails, and the muleteers are all knocked unconscious.
But the noise has awakened the Innkeeper, who enters and kindly tells Quixote that he must leave. Quixote apologizes for the trouble, but reminds the Innkeeper of his promise to dub him knight.
The Innkeeper does so (Knight of the Woeful Countenance).
Quixote then announces he must try to help the muleteers.
Aldonza, whom Quixote still calls Dulcinea, is shocked, but after the knight explains that the laws of chivalry demand that he succor a fallen enemy, Aldonza agrees to help them. For her efforts, she is beaten, raped, and carried off by the muleteers, who leave the inn (The Abduction).
Quixote, in his small room, is blissfully ruminating over his recent victory and the new title that the innkeeper has given him – and completely unaware of what has just happened to Aldonza (The Impossible Dream – first reprise).
At this point, the Don Quixote play is brutally interrupted when the Inquisition enters the dungeon and drags off an unwilling prisoner to be tried.
The Duke taunts Cervantes for his look of fear, and accuses him of not facing reality. This prompts a passionate defense of idealism by Cervantes.
The Don Quixote play resumes (Man of La Mancha – first reprise). Quixote and Sancho have left the inn and encounter a band of Gypsies ("Moorish Dance") who take advantage of Quixote's naivete and proceed to steal everything they own, including Quixote's horse Rocinante and Sancho's donkey Dapple.
The two are forced to return to the inn. The Innkeeper tries to keep them out, but finally cannot resist letting them back in out of pity.[23]
Aldonza shows up with several bruises. Quixote swears to avenge her, but she angrily tells him off, begging him to leave her alone and flinging her real, pitiful history in his face and blaming him for allowing her a glimpse of a life she can never have.
She begs him to see her as she really is but Quixote can only see her as his Dulcinea (Aldonza).
Suddenly, another knight enters. He announces himself as Don Quixote's mortal enemy, the Enchanter, this time appearing as the "Knight of the Mirrors".
He insults Aldonza, and is promptly challenged to combat by Don Quixote. The Knight of the Mirrors and his attendants bear huge shields with mirrors on them, and as they swing them at Quixote (Knight of the Mirrors), the glare from the sunlight blinds him.
The attacking Knight taunts him, forcing him to see himself as the world sees him – as a fool and a madman.
Don Quixote collapses, weeping. The Knight of the Mirrors removes his own helmet – he is really Dr. Carrasco, returned with his latest plan to cure Quixote.
Cervantes announces that the story is finished at least as far as he has written it, but the prisoners are dissatisfied with the ending. They prepare to burn his manuscript, when he asks for the chance to present one last scene.
The Governor agrees, and we are now in Alonso Quijana's bedroom, where he has fallen into a coma. Antonia, Sancho, the Housekeeper, the priest, and Carrasco are all there. Sancho tries to cheer up Quijana (A Little Gossip).
Alonso Quijana eventually awakens, and when questioned, reveals that he is now sane, remembering his knightly career as only a vague dream. He realizes that he is now dying, and asks the priest to help him make out his will.
As Quijana begins to dictate, Aldonza forces her way in. She has come to visit Quixote because she has found that she can no longer bear to be anyone but Dulcinea. When he does not recognize her, she sings a reprise of Dulcinea to him and tries to help him remember the words of "The Impossible Dream".
Suddenly, he remembers everything and rises from his bed, calling for his armor and sword so that he may set out again. (Man of La Mancha – second reprise) But it is too late – in mid-song, he suddenly cries out and falls dead. The priest sings The Psalm (Psalm 130 in Latin) for the dead.
However, Aldonza now believes in him so much that, to her, Don Quixote will always live: "A man died. He seemed a good man, but I did not know him ... Don Quixote is not dead.
Believe, Sancho ... believe." When Sancho calls her by name, she replies, "My name is Dulcinea."
The Inquisition enters to take Cervantes to his trial, and the prisoners, finding him not guilty, return his manuscript.
It is his (as yet) unfinished novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha.
As Cervantes and his servant mount the staircase to go to their impending trial, the prisoners, led by the girl who played Dulcinea, sing The Impossible Dream in chorus.
Source: Wikipedia.org
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