When Man of La
Mancha first opened in New York, 1966, it was the true hey-day of Broadway,
when theater seasons were littered with fresh hits like The Sound of Music,
My Fair Lady, Camelot, Sweet Charity, Mame, Funny Girl, and Hello, Dolly!
LaMancha, meanwhile, was produced at a small Off-Broadway theater near
Greenwich Village, by almost totally unknown authors. Within days of the
opening, the glittering theater crowd that was once used to seeing plays in
the Broadway theater district were shagging cabs for the Village, if they
were lucky enough to get tickets.
Man of LaMancha was
an instant hit. More, it was an instant classic of American Musical Theater
because it did more than entertain. It moved its audiences as few other
musical plays have done. This is not the story of Don Quixote; it is the
story of Cervantes, the author, telling his story to hardened criminals for
whom the world was a very grim place. In the process they, and he, are
transformed; and so is the audience.
Miguel de Cervantes, aging and an utter failure in his varied careers as
playwright, poet and tax collector for the government, has been thrown into
a dungeon in Seville to await trial by the Inquisition for an offense
against the Church. There he is hailed before a kangaroo court of his fellow
prisoners; thieves, cutthroats and trollops who propose to confiscate his meager
possessions one of which is the uncompleted manuscript of a novel
called "Don Quixote." Cervantes, seeking to save it, proposes to
offer a novel defense in the form of entertainment. The "court"
accedes and before their eyes, donning makeup and costume, Cervantes and his
faithful manservant transform themselves into Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
They proceed to play out the story with the participation of the prisoners
as other characters.
Quixote and Sancho take to the road, on
"horses" which dance a lively flamenco, singing Man of La Mancha
in a campaign to restore the age of chivalry, to battle evil and right all
wrongs. The famous encounter with the windmills follows, but Quixote
ascribes his defeat to the machinations of his enemy, the dark Enchanter,
whom one day he will meet in mortal combat.
In a roadside inn-which Quixote, spying from a
distance, insists to Sancho is really a castle-Aldonza, the inn's serving
girl and part-time trollop, is propositioned by a gang of rough Muleteers.
Quixote, arriving at the inn, sees Aldonza as the dream-ideal whom he will
serve evermore, singing Dulcinea to her. Aldonza is confused and angered by
Quixote's refusal to see her as she really is.
The Padre and Dr. Carrasco arrive at the inn
but on questioning Quixote, are frustrated by his lunatic logic. They are
interrupted by the arrival of an itinerant Barber singing The Barber's Song.
Quixote confiscates the Barber's shaving basin, convinced that it is really
the "Golden Helmet" of Mambrino, and is ceremoniously crowned with
the aid of the Muleteers and the incredulous Barber.
Later Aldonza encounters Quixote in the
courtyard where he is holding vigil, in preparation for being dubbed a
knight by the Innkeeper. She questions him on his seemingly irrational ways,
and is answered by Quixote in a statement of his credo, The Impossible
Dream.
Aldonza has caught the fever of Quixote's
idealism but, attempting to put it into practice, is cruelly beaten and
ravaged by the Muleteers in The Abduction and is carried off.
On the road again, Quixote and Sancho
encounter a thievish band of Moors and are robbed of all their possessions
in The Moorish Dance. They return to the inn, only to encounter the
disillusioned Aldonza who sings her denunciation of the Quixotic dream in
the dramatic Aldonza. A fantastic figure, the Enchanter disguised as the
Knight of the Mirrors, enters; challenging Quixote to combat, the Enchanter
defeats him, forcing him to see himself as a pathetic clown.
At home again, the old man who once called
himself Don Quixote is dying. Aldonza, having followed, forces her way into
the room, pleading poignantly with him to restore the vision of glory she
held so briefly, in the song Dulcinea. Quixote, remembering, rises from his
bed to reaffirm the stirring Man of La Mancha, but collapses, dying. Aldonza,
having glimpsed the vision once more, refuses to acknowledge death, saying,
"My name is Dulcinea."
Back in Cervantes' dungeon the prisoners,
dregs of humanity though they are, have been deeply affected by his story
and restore to him his precious manuscript. Cervantes is summoned to his
real trial by the Inquisition. The prisoners unite to sing him on his way
with The Impossible Dream.
