About the Musical

The American musical Man of La Mancha was firstly presented on November 22 1965,in ANTA Washington Square Theater on Broadway, New York.
The passage to it wasn’t easy at all andtook several years. Initially, Man of La Mancha started as a television play that was written by Dale Wasserman for CBS’s Dupont Show of the Month program. The original title was changed to I, Don Quixote, for better understanding of the audience. The play was successful and so, after several years, D. Wasserman was asked to remake it to a musical. The team that included librettist D. Wasserman, composer M. Leigh and the lyricist W. H. Auden was established. Later, J. Darion replaced W. H. Auden due to creative disagreements.
The musical has been performed in more than 50 countries and in more than 30 languages. On Broadway, there were 2 328 repeats between 1965 and 1971. It gained several prestigious Tony awards, including the award for the best musical of the year (in 1966). Since its premiere in 1965 it has returned to Broadway five times, lastly in the 2002/2003 season. A movie with Peter O’Toole (Don Quixote) and Sophia Loren (Aldonza) was made in 1972.
And why Don Quixote? It was an act of fortune. During his visit to Madrid, Dale Wasserman read in the newspaper that the reason for his visit in Spain was his preparation for dramatization of Don Quixote. It amused him a lot as he had never read the novel before. It was a challenge. He read the novel and the topic took him. The character of Cervantes – an actor, dramatist, novelist and poet was so exciting for him so that Wasserman gave him the role of the main narrator of the story. Governor: “Cervantes! I’ve got a feeling that Don Quixote and Don Miguel are brothers.” Cervantes: “With the help of God – both are the men of La Mancha.”

Musical was originally written as an one-act and it was Wasserman’s wish to play it without an interval.

Dale Wasserman created an ingenious concept – his Cervantes defends himself in front of other prisoners with a spontaneous dramatization of his novel. Cervantes trusted theater all his life, he wrote theater plays and produced them. However, he was a “poor poet” with little invention. This lasted till his novel about a crazy knight which brought him fame and immortality. And here, in prison, he defends theater with the novel and the novel defends the sense of theater. That’s surely a great idea, isn’t it? Including bystanders into the play is a magnificent part of this brilliant plea. Cervantes stands in front of the worst audience he could ever imagine – an unfriendly group of thieves, killers and prostitutes – and he makes them play diverse characters of the novel. Those who should judge him become amateur actors and maybe also participants of a social dramatherapy. The way Cervantes comes to and leads the dramatic situations truly reminds of modern methods that use acting for personal development of the participants.
The whole play courtly uses theater tradition, dallies with the motives of the Renaissance theater dealing with minimum of external devices, on the plain scene without any decoration. We watch the Quixote’s story as a theater in theater (Shakespeare used this technique for example in Hamlet) – different scenic lines weave in and out, appear unexpectedly, choreographically stylized scenes are followed by wonderful songs. It isn’t a musical in classical way because the spoken word has an important role. This of course puts stress on various skills of actors. In addition, the whole conception demands almost permanent attendance of all on stage, under the audience’s sight… You can’t disappear from a prison, can you..? The job of the scenographer was to devise many hideaways and nooks for the prisoners so that they can easily hide and then get out and play as fast as possible. Every character lives a dual life – as a prisoner and as an actor in the Cervantes’ story. The authors use this fact throughout the play – we can see the man as if in normal life and in the role of a character, acting how he could be: Cervantes – Quixote, servant – Sancho, the duke – Corrasco, the governor – cheerful innkeeper. The only exception is Aldonza – we don’t get directly anything about her real life, maybe just from her attitude, sight. At the same time, it is Aldonza who goes through the biggest metamorphosis…

Libretto: Dale Wasserman
Music: Mitch Leigh
Lyrics: Joe Darion

Translation: Jan Schneider, Jaroslav Hach
Lyrics of the song Little bird… (Ptáčku můj…): Ester Brožová

Director / dramaturgy: Libuše Hájková, Lukáš Horáček
Scene / costumes: Zuzana Kostincová
Conductor: Dalibor Tuž

Musical supervision: Zuzana Kubelková, Marie Nová, Dalibor Tuž
Production: Ars iuvenum, Jan Hejral

Technical support:
Stage director: Petr Bohatý
Lights: Ondřej Kyncl
Sound: Jan Hejral, Milan Hejral, Lumír Švec
Scene and costumes were made by: C + V, spol. s r. o., Liberec Zakázkové krejčovství Marlenka Liberec