Man of La Mancha Musical Lyrics

This Broadway musical has been staged in 1965, the basis of which is a novel about the adventures of a clever gentleman named Don Quijote. The author of this creation is the world-famous 17th-century writer Miguel de Cervantes. As for the musical, it has a very interesting history of creation. It began November 1959, when to American TV audience was shown non-musical play Man of La Mancha, of Dale Wasserman’s authorship. The main roles in it were performed by Lee J. Cobb, Colleen Dewhurst & Eli Wallach. Unfortunately, there are no preserved records of this film project. All because of the poor quality of the kinescopes of that time. For several years, the program experienced a great success on TV. Then the director Dale Wasserman received a proposal from its theatrical counterpart Albert Marre to turn the play into a musical, which he could show on the biggest stages of the country. The composer of the planned creation was chosen Mitch Leigh, lead the orchestra – C. W. Hall. What is interesting – there were no classical string instruments such as violin in the orchestra. But widely used more exotic musical ones, such as flamenco guitar, a variety of wooden flutes and others.

The first Broadway’s show took place in November 1965. From this point until its final closure, the audience saw 21 previews & 2,329 regular performances. This is a very respectable figure. Choreographer was J. Cole, lighting – H. Bay. Exhibitions were in the most popular theaters in the country, including the Goodspeed Opera House, Washington Square Theatre, Martin Beck Theatre & Eden Theatre. Musical quickly won the love of the audience, was awarded with a warm reception from critics. In particular, many have noted the remarkable acting of Richard Kiley as a main star. In 1965, the creation received 7 nominations for Tony Award & were able to win 5 of them. In addition to all the other awards, project managed to receive reward as the Best Musical.
Release date: 1965
Last Update:May, 16th 2016