Man of La Mancha: A Musical Play

by Dale Wasserman

Winner of the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Musical, 1966

"To me the most interesting aspect of the success of Man of La Mancha is the fact that it plows squarely upstream against the prevailing current of philosophy in the theater. That current is best identified by its catch-labels--Theater of the Absurd, Black Comedy, the Theater of Cruelty--which is to say the theater of alienation, of moral anarchy and despair. To the practitioners of those philosophies Man of La Mancha must seem hopelessly naive in its espousal of illusion as man's strongest spiritual need, the most meaningful function of his imagination. But I've no unhappiness about that. "Facts are the enemy of truth," says Cervantes-Don Quixote. And that is precisely what I felt and meant."--Dale Wasserman, from the Preface.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Classics, Fiction, Drama, Musicals, Humor

82 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1966

About the author

Dale Wasserman was an American playwright.

His protagonists are a bit like Wasserman himself: raffish rebels, fiercely independent fools—poets, madmen and misfits—societal outcasts who defy authority and "tilt at windmills," reluctant heroes (sometimes anti-heroes), who are called upon to make some extraordinary sacrifice in order to protect or preserve their personal freedom or that of others.

Reviews

[Jinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a musical play based on Miguel de Cervante's book Don Quixote. Mr. Wasserman's interpretation tells the story as a play within a play. It follows the man, Cervantes, as he awaits a hearing from the Spanish Inquisition. Cervantes and his co-prisoners act out a play about a half-baked knight, Don Quixote, through his fanciful adventures.

I see this as an interesting introduction to Don Quixote which I look forward to reading for "The Classics Club" I joined. I just wanted to dip my toes until I get there so I started with this play version. Moreover, my only qualm about this written play was my lack of imagination to hear and see it in action. It came as a realization how actors do wonders to telling a story. Seeing and hearing this play live would have been more meaningful for me. Hooray for actors!

Now, HERE is "The Quest" song, aka "The Impossible Dream", that inspired me to look into Don Quixote again (I vaguely recall the story in Junior High). This is awesome! I got to get my hands on the full film version and watch it. Such powerful words. Enjoy!

Jinky is Reading

[Sheska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Quixote is one of my all time favourite books, so it’s no surprise that I loved this play as much as I did, ugly tears and all. The only reason I changed my rating from 5 to 4 stars was because I got pretty damn annoyed with Wasserman refusing to admit that he knicked certain passages from Paul Kester’s Don Quixote (including the famous first two lines of The Impossible Dream from its afterword to the press). I mean, he'd already adapted Cervantes' book, what harm was there in admitting homage to another author. But no, that would be too much integrity for someone who exalted Cervantes' "misfortune to be honest" and Don Quixote's idealism. The cheek of him!

Here, I find myself paraphrasing that common truism..., good authors steal, great authors acknowledge their debt (Harlan Ellison's account of how J.D. Salinger's words inspired his own version of "I have scars on my hands from touching certain people" is one such example of a great artist.)

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a genuine pleasure to read. I am following this up with a viewing of the movie so I can fully appreciate the music and theatrics created by this book. 5+ stars

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun.

> I like him. I really like him. Tear out my fingernails one by one, I like him! I don’t have A very good reason. Since I’ve been with him cuckoonuts have been in season— But there’s nothing I can do, Chop me up for onion stew, Still I’ll yell to the sky, Though I can’t tell you why, That I like him! … I like him. I really like him. Pluck me naked as a scalded chicken, I like him! Don’t ask me For why or wherefore, ’Cause I don’t have a single good “Because” or “Therefore.” You can barbecue my nose, Make a giblet of my toes, Make me freeze, make me fry, Make me sigh, make me cry, Still I’ll yell to the sky Though I can’t tell you why, That I … like … him!

> Though your chin be smooth as satin, You will need me soon I know, For the Lord protects His barbers, And He makes the stubble grow.

> There is no Dulcinea, She’s made of flame and air, And yet how lovely life would seem If every man could weave a dream To keep him from despair.

> To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow, To run where the brave dare not go. To right the unrightable wrong, To love, pure and chaste, from afar, To try, when your arms are too weary, To reach the unreachable star! This is my Quest, to follow that star, No matter how hopeless, no matter how far, To fight for the right without question or pause, To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause! And I know, if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest, That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest. And the world will be better for this, That one man, scorned and covered with scars, Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, To reach the unreachable stars!

> I have been a soldier and seen my comrades fall in battle … or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I have held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no gallant last words … only their eyes filled with confusion, whimpering the question: “Why?” I do not think they asked why they were dying, but why they had lived

> When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

> You have shown me the sky, but what good is the sky To a creature who’ll never do better than crawl? Of all the cruel bastards who’ve badgered and battered me, You are the cruelest of all! Can’t you see what your gentle insanities do to me? Rob me of anger and give me despair! Blows and abuse I can take and give back again, Tenderness I cannot bear! So please torture me now with your “Sweet Dulcineas” no more! I am no one! I’m nothing! I’m only Aldonza the whore!

[Ana Mardoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man of La Mancha / 0-394-40619-2

Though I find the Don Quixote story to be moving and meaningful, I am the first to admit that the full work of Cervantes can be incredibly daunting - not exactly light evening reading. "Man of La Mancha" has managed to perfectly distill the Don Quixote story into a short, heart-warming play that is, if possible, even greater than the source material.

Whereas, in the original, Don Quixote's ravings are regularly used as witty insight or satirical commentary, in "Man of La Mancha", the ravings of our madman show us the veneer of the world we ought to live in. The character of Dulcinea is particularly touching - where those who would use and abuse her see only a whore broken by life's cruelties and painful necessities, our mad hero sees a woman capable of love, kindness, and friendship. He sees a person, with pain and sorrow and strength and inner beauty. How can we know that this view is "insanity"? Perhaps it is the rest of the world that is mad, and only our dear man of La Mancha has clear senses.

~ Ana Mardoll

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

how did it take me this long to read/listen to this? love love LOVE

[Emily Degnitz]

I read through this while watching the movie version of the musical. Other than certain parts and scenes being out of order since this was the musical script and not the movie script, it was pretty easy to follow.

[Jerry Kuntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Creative and Imaginative Play

I have loved this play my whole life and recently revisited it for the values expressed in it. The story and dialogue are challenging to any reader. I highly recommend it to you!

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Hispanic heritage isn't something I typically hold near and dear to my heart, as I feel it has had significantly limited impact on who and how I am as a person. Despite this, there are a few elements of the Spanish-speaking world in which I take great pride, and Miguel de Cervantes and his immortal Don Quixote will always command a place of high importance and sentiment in my heart. Dale Wasserman and Mitch Leigh created, not so much an adaptation, as a tribute to Quixote in the musical play "Man of La Mancha." Gone is most of the ludicrous, grotesque nature of Cervantes's character and his quest. Instead, we see deluded Don Quixote as a subversive clown-Christ figure, seeing dignity, glory and goodness where there is (to the "sane" eye) only grime, failure and moral corruption. Despite his madness, Quixote brings hope and rebirth to those he encounters along the way- as the character of Cervantes does to the prisoners in his cell, and as the real Cervantes has done to so many generations of dreamers and idealists over the centuries.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kind of loved this when I read it high school--it was funny and sad and romantic and hopeful, and a heck of a lot easier to get through than Don Quixote itself (sorry, Miguel de Cervantes). I mean, it kind of has everything--adventure and intrigue and love and prison and prostitutes and the Spanish Inquisition...great stuff!

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Don Quixote over a half century ago and it remains in my mind one of the most unusual and fascinating books that I have encountered. Since I will not read through it's 1,000+ pages again, I took the opportunity of reading this musical version as a reminder and was not dissapointed. In addition to Quixote's madness there was the addition of the "impossible dream" and other music added.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book from the play so it helps if you are familiar with the musical score and can play the tunes in your head.

Timeless and excellent story only made better if you know the history of Cervantes. We all pick and choose the reality that suits us best.

[Don Gubler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much shorter than Don Quixote and it has the lyrics for the songs in the musical. Nice little read.

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been a firm proponent of tilting at windmills:

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

We've heard these words, which comprise the final stanza of the show's most famous song "The Impossible Dream," dozens, maybe even hundreds of times. But in context within Man of La Mancha their forthright, matter-of-factnessunderlines their urgency. Now more than ever, we need ideals to believe in and hold onto: it's not the quixoticness that appeals, but the firm moral purpose.

Man of la Mancha is based on Cervantes' great novel Don Quixote, of course. The show takes place in a prison in Seville, Spain in 1594, where Cervantes is being held as he awaits interrogation by the Inquisitor. His fellow prisoners inform him that while he waits, he must stand trial here, for the crime of being an idealist. For his defense, he enacts the story of Alonso Quijana, an old man who, in his dotage, has acquired the romantic notion that he is a knight-errant called Don Quixote de la Mancha. With his trusty servant Sancho Panza, Quixote sets off to battle villains and save maidens in the name of a vague (if not vanished) nobility. Cervantes enlists the prisoners to help him act out his story, and soon they (and we) have entered into his imagination and are bringing his adventures to life.

Quixote's first order of business is to find a lady for whom he can do honor; more or less the first one he lays eyes upon is an unhappy serving wench at a ramshackle inn. To the world, she is Aldonza, daughter of a whore and plaything to anonymous muleteers and other rowdies. But to Don Quixote she is the lady Dulcinea, "half a prayer, half a song" as he puts it, a fantasy to propel all of his other fantasies.

Of course what happens in the story is that Quixote eventually convinces Aldonza of what he has always known, that she in fact is Dulcinea. Quixote has to battle the world to achieve his quest--not just random evil like the muleteers who rape Aldonza and the band of gypsies who rob him and Sancho Panza blind, but also the people who should be on his side, such as his niece Antonia and her betrothed, Dr. Carrasco. It is Carrasco who eventually nearly defeats Quixote by forcing him to gaze long and hard in the mirror of truth. But Dulcinea brings him back to life. "More misadventures," chimes the ever-faithful Sancho. "Ad-ventures, old friend," corrects the old courtier.

[Michael Guillebeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don Quixote is one of the most influential, funny and inspiring books ever written. It is also one of the most difficult and maddening. Wasserman has done a masterful job of reframing both the book and the writer. This is my all-time favorite play, and I was glad to see that it came across as well on the page as it did on the stage.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

No llegué a verla, pero me leí el libreto. En aquel momento me indigné, cosas de la juventud purista, por el reordenamiento y modificaciones que le habían hecho los herejes americanos a "mi" Quijote, pero en realidad no era para tanto. La obra realza los giros de guión y la historia del (anti)héroe del Quijote, con gran belleza, pues el original tiene para dar y tomar.

[Hbc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a MS class and has stayed with me to this day!

[Kelsey Burnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing my recollection of this musical in case our civic theatre decides to mount a production of it. Good show!

[Richard O Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the play version. It's a great retelling in play form of the Cervantes novel.

[tisha 💛 · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Short and delightful! Really makes me want to read Don Quixote for real one day. It’s length is perfect and I really see no flaws in it.

ENG3UY

[Anne Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this musical play several times in preparing for a performance. It is funny, endearing, and most of all poignant.

[Nilphat Phatdone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you must form an ideal,
or insanity within your psyche
For that might one day help us through rough times,
and give us the incalculable hopes!

[Sandy]

After having listened to and loved the musical cast recording I knew I wanted to read this. I already knew going in how inspiring and idealistic the story of Don Quixote was through the music, but I came to an even greater appreciation of the musical after learning to a greater extend about its structure as a play within a play. What interested me even more was how these choices were informed by the other popular theatrical genre of the time: the theater of the absurd.

On its own the story that Cervantes tells is an uplifting one, but in framing it as something that is obviously acted out and not real (like what is done in the theater of the absurd) only increases the story’s uplifting power as the story reaches the hearts of the fellow prisoners as well as the viewers/readers/listeners encountering the story. By the end of the story it becomes clear that the fact that the story is not real does not matter, and it is that jump people allow themselves to make that helps us realize that we don’t want to live with the world that we live in. That we crave a better and more beautiful world. That as Miguel de Cervantes said himself, “facts are the enemies of truth.”

[Victoria Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I thought I'd stop reading, I couldn't.

[Britt Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so familiar with the musical- i enjoyed the source material. I enjoyed part one but the awareness of part 2 was awesome. A bit dizzy and random with plenty of physical humor

[Reed Grubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this show enjoyable but, again, there were some problematic parts.

[Doan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would highly recommend watching the film as well.

[Martyr In Another · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoo! What a rollercoastery ending though.

Still such a fun time

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe as a play it doesn’t have a lot of literary merits, but it is one of my favorite books of the year.

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read Cervantes' Don Quixote in junior high and heard the soundtrack of the musical numbers of Wasserman's work on WFMT radio, so, when offered tickets to its debut in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, I enthusiastically accepted, excitedly inviting Rachel, the girl of my dreams from down the block, to the performance. She declined. Dejectedly, I invited Richard, my best friend, instead. He accepted.

The musical is, in part, an endorsement of emotion and idealism over reason and practicality. Naturally, I loved it, identifying stongly with Quixote, a poster of whom, the Picasso rendering, I was soon to put on my closet door near the "Vietnam Will Win!" one.