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MAN OF LA MANCHA |
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'Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible' That quotation from the twentieth-century philosopher Miguel de Unamuno was the inspiration behind the creation of Man of La Mancha, the prize winning 1965 Broadway musical. It must certainly have seemed absurd to try to make a musical based on 16th century Spanish literature about an old man who goes crazy, imagines he is a knight running around tilting at windmills, trying to turn ugly old peasant whores into fair ladies. The show ran for six years, won five Tony Awards and was produced in 50 countries in more than 30 languages. The song 'The Impossible Dream' became an instant standard. |
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It is a powerful story of Miguel de Cervantes, poet, actor and tax collector, who is thrown into jail with his faithful manservant - Sancho Panza, to be brought before the Inquisition for foreclosing on a church. In this dank place are thieves and murderers, all awaiting judgement of one form or another. They eagerly receive the newcomers, holding a mock trial for their amusement - the sentence being a fine of all that they posses. Cervantes is allowed to conduct his own defence and pleads his case in the form of a charade. It is now that we enter into his imagination and meet the faded knight - Don Quixote de la Mancha, who sees the world as non one else. His striving to see only the good in mankind finally win over the makeshift jury, as he departs to plead again, this time for his life before the Inquisition. |
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