Download 1 The History of This Tony ®œAward Winning Broadway Classic

The History of This Tony ¨ÐAward Winning Broadway Classic
One of the all-time great successes of American stage history, ÒMan of La ManchaÓ is
worthy of the book on which it was based, ÒDon Quixote,Ó by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the
great masterpieces of world literature for almost 375 years.
Since the death of Cervantes in 1616, more than 200 adaptations of it into theatrical form
have been made Ð operas, plays, films, ballets, television shows, but none of these matched the
popularity of the musical. The TV dramatization led to this musical. Dale Wasserman wrote the
TV drama entitled ÒI, Don QuixoteÓ that was nominated for a 1960 ÒEmmy,Ó and won that yearÕs
Writers Guild award.
Wasserman enlarged his television script into a non-musical stage play and it was at
once optioned for Broadway production. But he was persuaded to rewrite it as a musical and he
was brought together with Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion who could provide the music and the
lyrics. Their collaboration, with the nicely alliterative title of ÒMan of La Mancha,Ó was embarked
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for a pre-Broadway tryout at a Connecticut summer theatre (an old 19 century auditorium on a
bank of the Conn. River at East Haddam, Conn., called the Goodspeed Opera House, that had
just been lavishly restored to its original gay nineties dŽcor) where it triumphed so handsomely
for four weeks during the summer that the hope for a New York production became a certainty.
Instead of using a standard proscenium-type theatre, the producers of the show
mounted it at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New YorkÕs Greenwich Village, an open
stage theatre that had been built as a temporary home for the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln
Center until they could take up residence in their lavish uptown cultural center. ÒMan of La
ManchaÓ fitted beautifully into this setting, gaining critical acclaim for the effectiveness of its
physical production.
The show opened on Nov. 22, 1965 with the same cast (with no stars) that had played
the summer tryout. While it was anticipated with some interest among theatre professionals, there
was little to rouse expectations among ordinary audiences and the advance ticket sale was small.
But the morning after its premiere, showered with superlative reviews, it was suddenly the hottest
ticket in town. Audiences flocked to see it. So great was the rush of theatergoers that even the
paralyzing transit strike, 5 weeks after its opening could not hold up the throngs. The show won
all the major theatre awards for the season, being named as the best musical by the N.Y. Drama
CriticsÕ Circle, The Outer Circle, The Variety Poll and Saturday Review. Five ÒTonyÓ awards fell to
participants in the production, and one each to the composer, the lyricist, the director, the
designer and Richard Kiley, who played the leading role.
In 1968, when the time came to dismantle the downtown theatre to make way for New
York UniversityÕs expansion, the still-flourishing show was moved into a proscenium-type
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Broadway theatre where it continued to thrive. It reached its 1,800 uninterrupted New York
performance on Dec. 27, 1969 and promised to hold on for a good while longer. At that point it
had already surpassed the Broadway runs of ÒSouth Pacific,Ó ÒThe Sound of MusicÓ and ÒHow to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.Ó
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ÒMan of La ManchaÓ ended its long-run in June 1971 (the 26 , to be exact) after
amassing a total of 2,328 performances both on and off-Broadway. Since ending its premiere run
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in New York City, it has gone on to become one of the great musical classics of the modern
theatre. Its enormous popularity is best shown by its performance at the Candlelight Theatre in
Chicago (1970/71) where it ran for 54 weeks Ð the longest continuously performed production,
either play or musical, in a resident-professional theatre in the United States.
Six-and-a-half years after the premiere opening in New York, the musical returned to the
Vivan Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center for a summer-long run Ð again an enormous success.
The film version, made in Spain, was released in mid-December, 1972, and was a
notable failure with the critics (ÒHeavy-handedÓ was the general view; and mis-cast: Peter
OÕTooler was Don Quixote, Sophia Loren was Aldonza and James Coco was Sancho Panza, and
none of them could sing). Film publicity played up the fact that ÒMan of La ManchaÓ had been
translated into 28 languages and had been preformed with success in 24 countries.
Also in 1972, ÒMan of La ManchaÓ became the third American musical to be performed in
the Soviet Union (the other two were ÒWest Side StoryÓ and ÒMy Fair LadyÓ). In the Moscow
production, Communist prudery required that the rape of Aldonza by the muleteers be toned
down. Official Communist Party re-working showed a Don Quixote who was a buffoon, and more
the dramatic representation of the Soviet concept of the superfluous man who does no socially
useful work.
In the fall of 1977, the musical was again revived in New York, where it ran from Sept.
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15 to Dec.31 , following a trial run in Washington, DC. It was again a great success. Among the
critical comments were:
N.Y.TIMES, Clive Barnes: ÒOne of the modern classics of the American Theatre. As fresh
and timeless as ever. Mitch LeighÕs irrepressibly melodious and charming music is as
vibrant as ever. A brilliant stroke of theatre.Ó
THE NEW YORKER, Brendan Gill: ÒMan of La ManchaÓ is assuredly a classic. How had
we managed to stumble along without it so long? I hail Ôla ManchaÕ and recommend to my
readers this exceptionally stirring production.Ó
The 1977 production ran for 124 performances.
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The 25 anniversary revival of ÒMan of La ManchaÓ began a seven-city tour in November,
1991, and opened on Broadway in April 1992, with Raul Julia and Sheena Easton as its stars,
where it had 108 regular performances and 28 previews.
In the meanwhile, other parts of the country and the world were sharing the happy
experience of New York theatergoers. Several highly successful touring companies of the show
played U.S. cities, and productions were mounted in every major capital of the world. The first of
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these was appropriately the Madrid production in 1966 on the 350 anniversary of CervantesÕs
death. At the same time that a production of the play written by Cervantes was greeted by a very
unenthusiastic critical reaction, ÒMan of La ManchaÓ was hailed by critics and became a smashing
success in Spain. Productions in Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Finland,
Austria, England, and various countries in South America and elsewhere followed. In each
production one of each countryÕs foremost performers assayed the famous title role. Paris had
Jacques Brel making his legitimate acting debut as the dual characters of Cervantes and Don
Quixote in a French adaptation written by him.
Late 1969, the producers invited the stars of several of these foreign productions to
recreate their performance in New York with the Broadway company. The Mexican star, Claudio
Brook, was the first of these guest artists to appear, and among those to follow were the stars of
the Israeli and the Japanese productions.
The original cast album (Kapp KRS-4505) received critical acclaim when it was released
in early 1996.
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