‘Man of La Mancha’ to bring Don Quixote to Brownsville
BROWNSVILLE – The Brownsville Area High School Musical and Theatre Department will present the classical musical “Man of La Mancha” Friday through Sunday, March 7-9. The presentations for Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, will be at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday show, March 9, will be a matinee beginning at 2:30 p.m. All shows will be presented in the high school auditorium. Tickets can be purchased by calling 724-785-8200.
Tricia Rohlf will direct the musical.
The show tells the story of Miguel de Cervantes (Paul Wyatt) an aging playwright, who is awaiting his trial by the Inquisition on the charge of an offense against the church. The court, made up of fellow prisoners, seizes hold of Cervantes’s meager possessions, including an unfinished manuscript of his novel “Don Quixote.” Cervantes wants to keep his manuscript and decides that he will defend himself and win the jury over by presenting a defense in the form of entertainment.
The “court” complies and before their eyes, donning makeup and costume, Cervantes and his manservant (Andrew Basile) transform themselves into Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They proceed to play out the story with the participation of the prisoners and other characters.
Quixote and Sancho, who take to the road on “horses” (Diane Williams and Erika Taylor) which perform lively dances, perform “Man of La Mancha” in a campaign to restore the age of chivalry to battle evil and right all wrongs.
The famous encounter with the windmills follows, but Quixote ascribes his defeat to the machinations of his enemy, the dark Enchanter, whom one day he will meet in mortal combat.
In a roadside inn, which Quixote spies from a distance and insists to Sancho is really a castle, Aldonza (Paula Sally) the inn’s serving girl and part-time trollop, is propositioned by a rowdy group of Muleteers. Quixote sees Aldonza as the dream ideal that he will serve evermore. He sings the beautiful ballad “Dulcinea” to her, but she is upset that he refuses to see her as she really is.
The Padre (Vincent Basile) and Dr. Carrasco (Ryan Barnhart) arrive at the inn, but after questioning Quixote, are frustrated by his lunatic logic. They are interrupted by the arrival of an itinerant Barber (Paul Vlosich) singing “The Barber’s Song.” Quixote confiscates the barber’s shaving basin, convinced that it is really the “Golden Helmet of Mambrino.”
Later, Aldonza encounters Quixote at the courtyard where he is holding vigil and preparing to be dubbed a knight by the Innkeeper (Austin Savona). She questions him on his irrational ways, and Quixote answers her in the form of the magical song “The Impossible Dream.” Aldonza catches the fever of Quixote’s idealistic way of life but is subsequently abused by the Muleteers in “The Abduction.”
Quixote and Sancho set out on the road again, only to be approached by the Moors who rob them of all their possessions in “The Moorish Dance.” They must return to the inn, and there they again meet up with Aldonza. She denounces the Quixotic dream in the dramatic “Aldonza.” A fantastic figure, the Enchanter disguised as the Knight of the Mirrors, enters and challenges Quixote to a fight. Quixote is defeated and is forced to see himself as a pathetic clown.
At home again, the man who once called himself Don Quixote is dying. Aldonza has followed him and forces her way into the room and pleads with him in the beautiful “Dulcinea” to restore the vision of glory that he made her see ever so briefly. Quixote rises from his bed to reaffirm the stirring “Man of La Mancha,” but collapses and dies. Aldonza, however, refuses to acknowledge his death.
Back in Cervantes’ dungeon, the prisoners become so moved by his story that they agree to restore to him his precious manuscript. The Inquisition then summons Cervantes to his real trial. The prisoners unite to sing him on his way with “The Impossible Dream.”
The musical is written by Dale Wasserman with lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh.