"Man of La Mancha" was something of a landmark 30 years ago when it first premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. - the springboard for many future Broadway hits. Despite some criticism that it distorted Cervantes, it was also praised as one of the most imaginative theater events of the decade (according to retired New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson), and it quickly gained universal success with audiences, who tapped into its uplifting theme of believing in impossible dreams.
Next week, "Man of La Mancha" will mark two notable local landmarks as well - the anniversary of its first local production exactly 25 years ago on the Lees Main Stage of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, where it was also the first time that both actor-singer Robert Peterson and orchestra director James Prigmore made their University of Utah debuts.Ironically, while both Peterson and Prigmore have previous "La Mancha" connections, Charles Morey, the director of Pioneer Theatre Company's 1994-95 season finale, said during a telephone interview last week that he has never directed it, "and, as a matter of fact, I am probably one of the few people in the Western world who has never even seen it before!"
"In a way, not having seen the show before is kind of fun," said Morey. "I'm bringing to it my own sensibility the way I would approach a brand new play or a classic that I had never actually ever seen on stage.
"And Bob, who has done it 20-odd times before, keeps saying `Oh, gee, I've never done it that way before. That's an interesting way of doing it.' So, hopefully, we're creating something that's fresh and new.
"Although I wouldn't say by any stretch of the imagination that it is a wildly radical interpretation of the text, but it seems to be a little bit different than what is normally done with it."
Just how many times has Robert Peterson performed the role of Cervantes-Don Quixote on stage?
"I sat down the other day and tried to figure it out," he said. "I'm not sure exactly how many times, but this will be my 20th production of the show, so I suppose I've done probably between 350 and 400 performances of it."
You can add at least 21 more performances when PTC's April 25-May 13 run is completed (unless the show is extended - which would not come as any surprise).
Last year, when PTC first announced its 1994-95 season, and that Peterson would, indeed, be starring in "La Mancha," there were rumors throughout Salt Lake City's theater community that this would be Peterson's swan song. I've known Peterson for several years and have seen him in a variety of roles - including his performance of Lancelot in the first national tour of "Camelot" at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in the mid-1960s.
I can assure you that, despite his huge repertoire of music, one thing you won't catch him singing anytime soon are any swan songs.
He keeps busy teaching an acting class at the U., and he also coaches several students privately. This summer audiences will also get to see him in the joint Orem-Murray production of "Kiss Me, Kate" and - for his 18th or 19th summer (Peterson himself has lost count) - another stint with the popular "Festival of the American West" in Logan.
Peterson admits that he thoroughly enjoys the happy combination of teaching and performing.
Does he ever miss being on Broadway?
"Let's see, it's been six or seven years since I was back there. I was on my way to do some theater up in Maine, and I stopped in New York to visit some friends and see a couple of shows for about three days - and that's about all I could take," he said. "I thought, `I'm glad to be out of this city!' I have no desire to go back there at all! It's a hectic, hectic place, and it's not at all like it was when I first moved back there a long time ago. It's just not the same city at all."
Peterson was more pleased to be involved with the region's newest production of "Man of La Mancha."
"Last night we finished blocking the show, and we're getting ready for some serious run-throughs. It looks good, it looks very good," he said.
`It's kind of an interesting thing, I suppose," he said, when asked about what strikes a nerve with "La Mancha" audiences. `Out of all the works that Cervantes produced - and he did write a lot of stuff, especially many plays - I'm sure nobody can identify anything he wrote except `Don Quixote.' So there really has to be a reason this one thing has lived so long and has meant so much to so many people.
"I suppose it's just that idea of this kind of crazy man who's against all odds and who, in effect, really loses everything himself. Yet, everyone he comes in contact with wins for him having done what he has done. Everyone changes. Especially when you get to look at this particular play, you can really see that happen. The lives of everybody he touches change for the better," Peterson noted.
"I guess it's that attitude he has. There's one marvelous line in the show when Cervantes says to the Duke - one of the people also in prison, that `In a world that is so insane who knows where madness lies. Perhaps to be too practical is madness . . . perhaps to see treasure where there is only trash is madness . . . perhaps maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it ought to be.'
"Cervantes, through this character of Don Quixote, shows the potential of everything and everybody. And because of his attitude, others rise to their potential. It has such an uplifting ending to it," said Peterson. "When Cervantes first comes into the prison, they jump on him and steal everything he has, and they're even going to burn his manuscript, but at the very end the whole attitude of everyone in prison has changed because of witnessing this plight of Don Quixote and how he overcame the odds, at least in his own mind."
"It's a marvelous story and people love that kind of story," said Peterson. "That's one of the reasons it has to have, I think, existed on the literary level that it has for so many hundreds of years."
Director Charles Morey is particularly pleased with the cast that's been assembled for "Man of La Mancha."
In addition to Peterson, there are four visiting Equity artists in the PTC cast, including Kathleen Rowe McAllen as Aldonza, the rough scullery maid who is transformed into Quixote's ideal Dulcinea.
McAllen received a Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Aspects of Love." She also appeared in the Broadway productions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "The Human Comedy," as well as two West End productions in London: as Fantine in "Les Miserables" and the London cast of "Aspects of Love."
Scott Schafer, who portrayed Groucho in PTC's production of "A Day in Hollywood, a Night in the Ukraine" in 1992, is returning to the Lees Main Stage in the role of Don Quixote's loveable sidekick, Sancho Panza.
Michael Hayward-Jones, who recently appeared with Tyne Daly in a concert version of Irving Berlin's "Call Me Madam" and in the world premiere of Alan Menken's new musical version of "A Christmas Carol" at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theatre, will portray the sympathetic Padre. (Hayward-Jones also enjoyed long Broadway runs of both "Me and My Girl" and "Evita" and toured with Angela Lansbury in "Mame" and Rudolf Nureyev in "The King and I.")
Michael Mandell, who scored local acclaim as Jim, the runaway slave in PTC's 1990 production of "Big River," as well as a role in "Sunday in the Park with George," is back - this time in the dual roles of the Governor and the Innkeeper in "La Mancha."
Local Equity performers include Max Robinson as the Duke-Carrasco, Richard Mathews as the Barber, and Frank Gerrish, Mearle Marsh, David Valenza, Sam Stewart and Kit Karson Anderton as fellow inmates-muleteers, and Anne Stewart Mark as the innkeeper's wife.
Also in the ensemble are Tony Larimer, Lori Schoonmaker, Ann P. Hamilton, Justin B. Ivie, Dorothy Briggs Arnold, David Spangenthal, Angela Evans, Javier Cordoba, Nathan Landmon and Ernie Doose.
In addition to James Prigmore's musical direction, Jayne Luke is choreographing the show, with Peter Willardson as lighting designer, George Maxwell as set designer and guest artist David Paulin as costume designer (he was assistant designer for the current Broadway hit "Beauty and the Beast" and also designed costumes for the blockbuster national tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar"). David Boushey choreographed the fight sequences.
- CHARLES MOREY, Pioneer Theatre Company's full-time artistic director, noted that he is staging "Man of La Mancha" as written, with no intermission.
"Not infrequently, theaters that rely on concessions sales will put an intermission in, but you kind of have to construct it. You've got to sort of wrench it around to do it," he said. "But Bob (Peterson) was either in or saw a dinner theater production once where they put in three intermissions. But, of course, they make their money selling drinks. If they don't have the space to sell drinks, there's no point in doing the play. But we'll do it without intermission.
"It runs a little under two hours. When you consider that movies are frequently 120 minutes-plus, that's just about as long as the human butt can stand. I wouldn't want to go much longer than that."
Morey added that he had "been thinking about doing this show for the past couple of years - very much for Bob, even though I'd never seen him do it. I've always known that this is his signature role in many respects, and we know that we would want to do it again for him before too long and this seemed to be the right year. But there was no question from the beginning that Bob would play Cervantes-Quixote.
"What's kind of fun is that obviously he knows the role well and he's done it for years and has strong and clear ideas on how he structures it, but he's also very, very open to change, too. In a way, from a director's view, it's great to have somebody who essentially comes in with a structured, filled performance, but you're able to shape that and shape the production in around that as well. Because he has that confidence, he can be very open to doing the role in different ways."
- ROBERT PETERSON said he was "a little worried, at first, about getting into something as physical and emotional as `La Mancha' because it's been five years since my last production. At that point I thought I probably would never do it again. It just takes too much out of me, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm having a lot of fun with it. We have an excellent cast."
Are there any roles in other shows that Peterson would like to do sometime?
"Well, yeah, there are a couple of roles that I would have liked to have done," he replied.
"I always wanted to do Charlie Anderson in `Shenandoah,' and, of course, when `Les Miz' came out I thought, `Oh, I've got to do Jean Valjean,' then as the years progressed and that show just kept being such a great, big hit, I thought, `Well, OK, I do want to do the show, but I'll do Javert. And now I think that by the time the show gets released for anybody other than the composers' own productions I'll be sitting in a rocking chair watching the sunset all day long!"
He was unable to touch bases with Robert Goulet when the national touring production of "Camelot" came through Salt Lake City in January of 1994 because he was busy with rehearsals for PTC's "Romeo and Juliet," but he did see former University of Utah performer Patricia Kies, who was portraying Queen Guenevere in the tour.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Where, when
Pioneer Theatre Company's production of "Man of La Mancha," opens Wednesday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. on the Lees Main Stage of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1340 East (Broadway at University), where it will continue Mondays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. through May 13 (with a possible extension, depending on ticket sales).
Single-ticket prices range from $11 to $30. Free parking is available adjacent to or near the theater. There are discounts for groups of 20 or more. For reservations, call 581-6961.
On the second and third Thursdays of the run (May 6 and 11), patrons are invited to a post-performance discussion with the cast and director.