Theater Reviews

Nov 25, 2000 - Bare Bones "Man of La Mancha" Opens Pioneer Center Season

By Jack Neal

"Man of La Mancha" is the prototype example of a star overriding material.

When the Mitch Leigh (music), Joe Darion (lyrics), Dale Wasserman book) musical opened in New York on November 22, 1965, it starred Richard Kiley, one of the finest singing actors ever to grace the American and international stage. For the multitudes who saw Kiley's fabled and saintly Don Quixote in New York and on the road, "Man of La Mancha" was a deeply personal experience with idealism rendered by the sublime presence of a gifted performer who had the uncanny ability to quickly connect with an audience.

Ron Holgate, who is starring in the 2000 road-show, bus-and-truck update now playing in Reno, is a distinguished actor-singer but he lacks that extra something that could, possibly, make his man of La Mancha memorable. As it is, he's quite adequate, but adequate is not enough to sustain a musical that is too far removed from brilliance to entrance on its own merits.

With slick touring replicas that are little better than motel art work such as "La Mancha," along with long lists of other graying musicals making cold, hard cash on the road, the public may begin to wonder what all the fuss is about. Are so-called Broadway shows really all they're cracked up to be? Well, Broadway hasn't been all it used to be cracked up to be for some time. But that's another story.

"Man of La Mancha" dates from a moment, when scintillating New York theater began is journey downward to being a big-bucks hang out for tourists wanting the real thing but getting, sadly, an over produced, charmless thing.

With its rambling, intermissionless structure (Cervantes, thrown into prison by the Inquisition, acts out the story of Don Quixote to keep his fellow inmates from stealing his manuscript), a score that seems mostly strung together from Marlboro commercials, including "The Impossible Dream," and a book in which lines such as "Facts are the enemy of truth" and "There's a remedy for everything but death" pass for irony and wit, "Man of La Mancha is the granddaddy of all junk musicals and where the British got the idea for Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It's saving grace here, "Man of La Mancha" is blessed with an exceptionally strong cast. In addition to Holgate's adequacy, Marlyn Caskey is a sensuous Aldonza (Dulcinea) with a rich mezzo sound that would make the Caskey package an exceptionally good one for a first-rate Carmen. I'm not quite sure I see her as Norma Desmond, which she has in her credits as a role she played in the Canadian version of "Sunset Boulevard," but who am I to second guess Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's casting notions. I thought Faye Dunaway would be terrific.

As Don Quixote's side-kick Sancho, Richard Ruiz is entirely acceptable, and squeezes as much chutzpah from the role as most any actor has without overreaching his welcome. As the Padre, Anthony Santelmo, Jr. sings gorgeously and manages the production's blaring sound (a sound design by Thomas Bothof and Dave Curtis that shatters steel) best of any of "La Mancha's" singers.

The set by Wrightworks, Inc. and costumes by Michael Bottari and Ronald Case are exellent reproductions of "La Mancha's" originals. As is, with the exception of of an evening of searchlight spotlight work (dreadful and laughable) Charlie Morrison's lighting. Jeffrey B. Moss's direction and Connie Shaffer's choreography are both up to par.

What isn't up to par is this production's tiny little orchestra with its tinny little sound. The musicians and their conductor, Denes Van Parys, are just fine. But the constant pawning off of wholly inadequate orchestas in productions that purport to be "musicals" is the biggest rip-off touring producing companies (in this case Park Avenue Theatrical Group) foist off on an unsuspecting public. Shame! Shame!

"Man of La Mancha," which opened in Reno Friday (11/24/2000), can be seen at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno, Saturday (11/25/2000) at 8 p.m. and Sunday (11/26/2000) at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. For information call 775-686-6600.