Man of La Mancha

Tess Rohan as Aldonza and Steve McCoy as Don Quixote

One of the all-time great successes of American stage history, Man of La Mancha is worthy of the book on which it was based, “Don Quixote,” by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the great masterpieces of world literature for almost 400 years.

Since the death of Cervantes in 1616, more than 200 theatrical adaptations have been made—operas, plays, films, ballets, television shows—but none of these matched the popularity of the musical. Dale Wasserman wrote the TV drama entitled I, Don Quixote that was nominated for a 1960 Emmy and won that year’s Writers Guild award.

Wasserman enlarged his television script into a non-musical stage play and it was optioned for Broadway. But he was persuaded to rewrite it as a musical and was brought together with Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion, who could provide the music and lyrics. Their collaboration, with the title of Man of La Mancha, was embarked for a pre-Broadway tryout at the Goodspeed Opera House, where it triumphed so handsomely for four weeks during the summer that the hope for a New York production became a certainty.

The show opened on November 22, 1965, with the same cast (with no stars) that had played the summer tryout. 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 a paralyzing transit strike couldn’t hold up the throngs. The show won all the major theatre awards for the season, being named as best musical by the N.Y. Drama Critics’ Circle, The Outer Circle, The Variety Poll and Saturday Review. It received five Tony awards, with one each to the composer, the lyricist, the director 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 University’s expansion, the still-flourishing show was moved to a new Broadway theatre, where it continued to thrive. It reached its 1,800th uninterrupted New York performance on December 27, 1969, and promised to hold on for a good while longer. At that point it had already surpassed the Broadway runs of South Pacific, The Sound of Music and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

In the meantime, 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 these was appropriately the Madrid production in 1966 on the 350th anniversary of Cervantes’ death. Man of La Mancha was hailed by critics and became a smashing success in Spain. Productions in Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, England and various countries in South America and elsewhere followed. In each production one of each country’s foremost performers assayed the famous title role.

An original cast album received critical acclaim when it was released in early 1966. Man of La Mancha ended its long run in June 1971 after amassing a total of 2,328 performances both on and off Broadway. Since ending its premier run in New York, it has gone on to become one of the great musical classics of the modern theatre. Six-and-a-half years after the premier opening in New York, the musical returned to the Vivan Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center for a summerlong run, again an enormous success.

The film version, made in Spain, was released in mid-December, 1972 with Peter O’Toole portraying Don Quixote, Sophia Loren was Aldonza and James Coco was Sancho Panza. Film publicity played up the fact that Man of La Mancha had been translated into 28 languages and had been performed with success in 24 countries.

Also in 1972, Man of La Mancha became the third American musical to be performed in the Soviet Union (following West Side Story and My Fair Lady). In the fall of 1977, the musical was again revived in New York. The 25th anniversary revival began a seven-city tour in November 1991 and opened on Broadway in April 1992 with Raul Julia and Sheena Easton as its stars. The 35th anniversary revival was produced at the Goodspeed Opera House, where the musical had originally begun prior to Broadway. This production, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell in the title role, opened on Broadway in 2002.