Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel 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.
The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes's life or Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.
The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.
"The Impossible Dream", the principal song in the show, became a standard. The musical has played in many other countries around the world, with productions in Croatian, Dutch, French (translation by Jacques Brel), German, Hebrew, Irish, Estonian, Japanese, Korean, Bengali, Gujarati, Uzbek, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swahili, Swedish, Finnish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Turkish, and nine distinct dialects of the Spanish language.
Man of La Mancha was first performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1965 and had its New York premiere on the thrust stage of the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in 1965.
Contents
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 performed 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. The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Billy Rose Collection, has a rare tape recording of this broadcast.
Years after this television airing 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, this 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.
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.
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. Richard Kiley instead became Don Quixote.
After 22 previews, the musical opened off-Broadway at the experimental thrust-stage ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village on November 22, 1965. The show moved to Broadway 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 Broadway run of 2,328 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.
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. Kiley was replaced in the original Broadway run by first Jose Ferrer on Broadway and in the 1966 National Tour, and then by 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.
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. 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.
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.
Synopsis
In 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. Their fellow prisoners attack them, eager to steal the contents of the large trunk Cervantes has brought with him. However, a sympathetic criminal known as "the Governor" suggests setting up a mock trial instead. Only if Cervantes is found guilty will he have to hand over his possessions. A cynical prisoner, known as "the Duke," charges Cervantes with being an idealist and a bad poet. Cervantes pleads guilty, but then asks if he may offer a defense, in the form of a play, acted out by him and all the prisoners. The "Governor" agrees.
Cervantes takes out a makeup kit and costume from his trunk, and transforms himself into Alonso Quijano, an old gentleman who has read so many books of chivalry and thought so much about injustice that he has lost his mind and set out as a knight-errant. Quijano renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and goes off to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza. ("Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote)")
Don Quixote warns Sancho that they are always in danger of being attacked by Quixote's mortal enemy, an evil magician known as the Enchanter. Suddenly he spots a windmill, mistakes it for a four-armed giant, attacks it, and receives a beating from the encounter. Quixote decides that he lost the battle because he was never properly knighted. He then mistakes a rundown inn for a castle and orders Sancho to announce their arrival by blowing his bugle.
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. Aldonza fends them off sarcastically ("It's All The Same"), but eventually deigns to accept their leader, Pedro, who pays in advance.
Don Quixote enters with Sancho, asking for the lord of the castle. The Innkeeper (played by The Governor) humors Don Quixote as best he can. Quixote sees Aldonza and declares that she is his lady, Dulcinea, to whom he has sworn eternal loyalty ("Dulcinea"). Aldonza, used to rough treatment, is first flabbergasted and then annoyed at Quixote's kindness, and is further aggravated when the Muleteers turn Quixote's tender ballad into a mocking serenade.
Musical numbers
"Overture"
"Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote)" – Don Quixote, Sancho
"Food, Wine, Aldonza!" – Muleteers
"It's All the Same" – Aldonza
"Dulcinea" – Don Quixote
"I'm Only Thinking of Him" – Antonia, Padre, Housekeeper
"We're Only Thinking of Him" – Antonia, Carrasco, Padre, Housekeeper
"The Missive" – Sancho
"I Really Like Him" – Sancho
"What Does He Want of Me?" – Aldonza
"Little Bird, Little Bird" – Muleteers
"Barber's song" – Barber
"Golden Helmet of Mambrino" – Don Quixote, Sancho & Barber
"To Each His Dulcinea" – Padre
"The Impossible Dream" – Don Quixote
"The Combat (instrumental)" – orchestra
"The Dubbing" – Innkeeper, Aldonza & Sancho
"Knight of the Woeful Countenance" - Innkeeper
"Little Bird, Little Bird (reprise)" leading into an instrumental entitled...
"The Abduction" – Muleteers
Casts
Notable replacements
Don Quixote: David Atkinson, Claudio Brook, John Cullum, José Ferrer, Laurence Guittard, Hal Holbrook, David Holliday, Somegoro Ichikawa, Keith Michell, Gideon Singer
Aldonza: Patricia Marand, Marion Marlowe
Sancho Panza: Joey Faye, Tony Martinez, Titos Vandis
The Innkeeper: Wilbur Evans
Dr. Carrasco: Laurence Guittard, David Holliday, Tim Jerome
Don Quixote: David Atkinson
Don Quixote: Laurence Guittard
Aldonza: Joan Diener
Aldonza: Marin Mazzie
Recordings
Man of La Mancha (original Broadway cast recording), a 1966 album containing a recording of the musical by the 1965 original Broadway cast
Man of La Mancha – The New Broadway Cast Recording, a 2003 album containing a recording of the musical by the 2002 Broadway revival cast
Translated stage adaptations
Spanish
The first Spanish production opened in 1966 in Madrid, Spain, starring Nati Mistral as Aldonza and the great Spanish baritone Luis Sagi-Vela as Quixote/Cervantes. A cast album was released by Columbia Records featuring four songs, all except the last sung by Sagi-Vela: "The Impossible Dream", "Dulcinea", "Little Bird", and "What Do You Want From Me".
The first Mexican production premiered on February 19, 1969, at the Teatro Manolo Fábregas in Mexico City, with Mistral reprising her acclaimed Aldonza, Claudio Brook as Quixote/Cervantes, and Oscar Pulido as Sancho Panza. The best-selling cast recording was issued by MCA/Decca on LP, and was later re-issued on CD by Honda Music International.
A Peruvian cast album was released in 1969 as well.
José Sacristán and Paloma San Basilio starred in an acclaimed Madrid revival in 1998. A 2-disc cast album was issued by EMI-Odeón, recorded live at Teatro Lope de Vega.
A 2004 revival opened at the Teatro Calderón in Madrid and also toured throughout Spain, finishing in Barcelona.
On September 28, 2016, a new production opened at the Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City, with Benny Ibarra as Quixote/Cervantes, Ana Brenda Contreras as Aldonza and Carlos Corona as Sancho Panza.
Swedish
The first Swedish production opened September 1, 1967 at Malmö Stadsteater (now Malmö Opera). Starring in the three lead roles were Lars Ekman, Maj Lindström and K G Lindström.
Hebrew
A Hebrew-language production was produced by Giora Godik in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1967.
German
The first German language version was written by Robert Gilbert and started on 4 January 1968 in Vienna with Dietrich Haugk as director. Don Quixote/Cervantes was played by Josef Meinrad, Aldonza by Blanche Aubry and Sancho Panza by Fritz Muliar. The production was quite successful and subsequently shown in other German speaking theaters. A recording with the German cast was published by Polydor within the same year.
An Austrian version of the musical, in German, was presented on Austrian television in 1994, with Karl Merkatz (playing Cervantes and Quixote at the age of sixty-four) and Dagmar Hellberg in the leading roles.
French
A French adaptation premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on December 11, 1968. Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel translated the songs and played the lead (the only time he ever adapted songs written by other writers or appeared in a stage musical). Joan Diener reprised her role as Aldonza (this time singing in French). It was recorded and issued in 1968 as the album L'Homme de la Mancha.
Another French version based on Brel's translation was produced in Liège in 1998 and 1999 with José van Dam in the lead role.
In March 2012, French baritone David Serero performed the lead of role of Don Quixote in a new production, produced by himself, in Paris and Deauville with an international cast including Jeane Manson, Charlie Glad, Lionel Losada, Gilles San Juan and directed by James Marvel.
Bulgarian
A Bulgarian adaptation for television (Bulgarian: Човекът от Ла Манча, romanized: Chovekat ot La Mancha) was released in 1968 directed by Asen Trayanov and Grisha Ostrovski, starring Kosta Tsonev, Nikola Anastasov, Grigor Vachkov, Konstantin Kotsev, Vasil Mihaylov and Tatyana Lolova.
A Bulgarian stage adaptation was realized directed by Grisha Ostrovski.
Cantonese
A Cantonese production entitled "The Heroic Spirit of a Warrior" opened in 1982 in Hong Kong, starred Yiu Tsang-Pak as the leading role. Another Cantonese production with a new title "Sleepwalking Knight of La Mancha" opened in Hong Kong in 2004, with Yiu Tsang-Pak returning as the leading role. The book was re-translated by Rupert Chan.
Chinese
The first Mandarin Chinese production of the musical opened Dec. 2015 in Shanghai, China, starring Kain Liu as Don Quixote/Cervantes. This production used "I, Don Quixote" as title, and was directed by American director Joseph Graves. In May 2016, the show premiered in Beijing with Kain Liu repeating the title role.
Bengali
A Bengali adaptation by Arun Mukherjee entitled Dukhi Mukhi Joddha was staged in Calcutta in 1994 by the theater group Chetana, under his direction.
In April 2018 Chetana once again staged a much elaborate adaptation of the musical under the direction of Sujan (Neel) Mukhopadhyay, entitled Don...Takye Bhalo Lagye and starring Suman Mukhopadhyay in the title role.
Russian
A Russian production first premiered in 2005 and ran until 2015.
People's Artist (USSR) Vladimir Zeldin took the lead role with the co-star People's Artist (Georgia, Russia) Tamara Gverdtsiteli.
Korean
A Korean production first opened at the Haeorum Theater of the National Theater of Korea in 2005 under the name Don Quixote. Ryu Jung-han and Kim Seong-ki starred as the main characters.
In a 2007 production, this time staged under its original name, Cho Seung-woo and Jung Sung-hwa starred as Quixote/Cervantes. They reprised their roles a year later and in 2010.
Multiple stars played the titular role in the 2012 production, including Hwang Jung-min (who had to step down due to him directing and starring in a production of Sondheim's Assassins and was replaced by Ryu Jung-han), Seo Bum-suk, and Hong Kwang-ho.
Jung Sung-hwa and Cho Seung-woo played the main character in a 2013 production.
In a 2015 production marking the tenth anniversary of the musical's first performance in Korea, Jo and Ryu returned in the lead role.
Japanese
A Japanese-language production entitled The Impossible Dream was produced in Tokyo, Japan, where Matsumoto Kōshirō IX (as Ichikawa Somegorō VI) took the lead role.
Others
The musical has been and continues to be produced in many other languages around the world, and in 2012 and 2013 played in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, China, Poland, Dominican Republic, Chile, Russia, and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cast albums are available in many languages including German from the 1968 Vienna performance (Der Mann von La Mancha) and the 1969 Hamburg cast (Der Mann von La Mancha), the 1969 Dutch cast (De Man van La Mancha), the 1970 Norwegian cast (Mannen frå La Mancha), the 1997 Polish cast (Człowiek Z La Manchy), the 1997 Czech cast (Muž Z la Manchy), the 2001 Hungarian cast (La Mancha Lovagja), and many others.