Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Austin Playhouse, September 6 - October 6, 2013

by Catherine Dribb

While the impossible dream of Austin Playhouse moving into Mueller Development may still be just that, they’ve finally released Man of La Mancha into the Austin art world. For two years it’s been slated as the opening production in their newly built theatre, but with no ground breaking yet, it seems Don Quixote will have to settle for Highland Mall instead.

Which seems appropriate really. For the man who battles windmills and sees the potential of the world instead of its hardships, would have walked into that all but abandoned mall, and raised his arms in agony. “To be or not to be?”

Rick Roemer, Jacob Trussell (photo: Christopher Loveless)

To be! Don Quixote would have undoubtedly decided. And with the final weekend approaching, the Playhouse has announced that this has been their highest earning musical in all their eleven years of existence.

And as the prisoners of the Inquisition turn their jail cell into an inn and then into a castle, so has Austin Playhouse turned an old Footlocker into an intimate live theatre space and that small stage into a daring dungeon housing victims of religious and political zealotry.

Man of La Mancha enters its final weekend tomorrow with Rick Roemer still giving a beautiful rendition of its protagonist, Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote. Roemer’s voice has never sounded so strong, and his Impossible Dream will bring you not to your feet, but to your knees with its tenderness. 

Despite some pitch issues in the cast, notable performances include that of chorus member Lara Wright, who doesn’t play the usual quirky, gregarious sidekick you’ve undoubtedly seen do at Zach Theatre and the Playhouse, but rather the roles of an understated kitchen wench and a seductive Gypsy dancer. In addition, Leslie R. Hethcox is delightful (as usual - did you see him in Little Shop this summer?!) with his barber cameo. And both sets of galloping horse legs (Hethcox and Stephen Mercantel) were indeed impressive.

The set is well crafted with a trap lowering dramatically into the dungeon, interrupting Miguel de Cervantes’ story and jarring the audience back to “reality” as well. We wonder, what world do we live in, and how do we choose to proceed? Is our story retold with hope and imagination as its greatest honors?

(photo: Christopher Loveless)

Only you can decide! So choose to indulge this weekend in Man of La Mancha at Austin Playhouse. It’s guaranteed to stir your soul and help you dream some of your own impossible dreams.

Tickets are available online at the AustinPlayhouse.com website or by calling the boxoffice at (512) 476-0084.

Photos by Christopher Loveless of 'Man of La Mancha' cast, Austin Playhouse, September 6 - October 6, 2013

A portfolio of seven cast photos by Christopher Loveless for the

Rick Roemer (photo: Christopher Loveless)

production of


Man of La Mancha


by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh

directed by Don Toner musical direction by Michael McKelvey

with Rick Roemer as Don Quijote

September 6 – October 6, 2013, Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.
Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752 - click for map
WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com
TICKETS: $34 Thursday/Friday, $36 Saturday/Sunday, $38 Opening Night with champagne reception: Friday, September 6, 2013 All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up.
BOX OFFICE: 512.476.0084 or online www.austinplayhouse.com

Boni Hester and cast (photo: Christopher Loveless)

Click to view additional photos by Christopher Loveless

Opening This Week in Central Texas, September 2 - 8, 2013

Opening This Week 

September 2 - 8, 2013

Click images for additional information

Click HERE for a list of all productions CONTINUING on stage

Opening around Austin . . .

Always, Patsy Cline, New Braunfels benefit for Circle Arts Theatre, 
September 6 - 15

Bastrop Opera House, Sept. 6 - 28

in Wimberley

Seminar:
What Makes Austin Theatre Unique?
UT at Zach Theatre, September 6, 7 - 9 p.m.


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IN SAN ANTONIO
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Cameo Theatre, September 7 - October 6

MAN OF LA MANCHA, Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, September 6 - October 6, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents

 

by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh
directed by Don Toner musical direction by Michael McKelvey

September 6 – October 6, 2013, Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752 - click for map
WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com

TICKETS: $34 Thursday/Friday, $36 Saturday/Sunday, $38 Opening Night with champagne reception: Friday, September 6, 2013 All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up.

BOX OFFICE: 512.476.0084 or online www.austinplayhouse.com
Winner of five Tony Awards including that for Best Musical, Man of La Mancha has enchanted audiences for decades with the lyrical adventure of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Set during the Spanish Inquisition, Miguel Cervantes, writer and tax collector, is imprisoned for foreclosing on a church. In order to win favor with his fellow prisoners he tells the tale of Don Quixote, a would-be knight who sees only goodness in a world of darkness and despair. The musical shifts from the prison’s bleak reality to Quixote’s idealized world with prisoners becoming characters in Quixote’s story. Featuring a breathtaking score including “The Impossible Dream,” “Dulcinea,” and the title song, Man of La Mancha is powerful American musical theatre at its best.

Starring Rick Roemer as Cervantes/Quixote, Jacob Trussell as his manservant/Sancho Panza, Boni Hester as Aldonza (Dulcinea), Huck Huckaby as the Governor/Innkeeper, Ben Wolfe as the Duke/Dr. Carrasco, Josh Wechsler as the Padre, Wendy Zavaleta as the Housekeeper, Claire Grasso as Antonia, Brian Coughlin as Pedro, and Leslie Hethcox as the Barber, with Kimberly Barrow, Ann Richards, Stephen Mercantel, Paul Koudouris, Glenn DeVar, Brian Losoya, and Patrick Crowley.

Direction by Don Toner, musical direction by Michael McKelvey, choreography by Lisa del Rosario, costume design by Jessica Colley-Mitchell, set design by Don Toner and Patrick Crowley, lighting design by Don Day, and sound design by Joel Mercado-See.

Man of La Mancha will be produced in Austin Playhouse's temporary space at Highland Mall. The South Entrance (by the IBC bank) is closest to the theatre. Proceed down the escalator and turn right. Austin Playhouse will be on your right by the water feature. Detailed directions are available on our website: http://austinplayhouse.com/season/tempfac.html


Austin Playhouse 2013-2014 Season
Our Season opens with Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion, & Mitch Leigh, running September 6 - October 6, 2013, followed by the murder-mystery And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, November 22 - December 22, 2013, a new adaptation of Corneille’s 17th century farce The Liar by David Ives, February 7 - March 9, 2014, the world premiere of Roaring by Cyndi Williams, April 4 - May 4, 2014, and a TBA, May 23 - June 22, 2014.

In addition to our five-play season, Austin Playhouse will produce the popular comedy The Dead Presidents’ Club by Larry L. King, October 18 – November 3, 2013, and the provocative recent Broadway hit Venus in Fur by David Ives, January 3 – 26, 2013.

Austin Playhouse is a professional theatre currently performing its 13th season. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Don Toner and Artistic Director Lara Toner Haddock, Austin Playhouse has grown from a three-play season on the campus of Concordia University, to a year-round operation producing an average of eight plays a year. Austin Playhouse is currently building its own two-performance venue space in the heart of the new Mueller Redevelopment Town Center, adjacent to the new Austin Children’s Museum.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Auditions for Man of La Mancha, Austin Playhouse, June 10, 2013 by Appointment

Auditions for the Austin Playhouse production of the musical Man of La Mancha will be held on Monday, June 10 at Austin Playhouse. Don Toner will direct the production with musical direction by Michael McKelvey.

All performers are compensated.Equity and non-Equity will be hired. All ethnicities encouraged.

Rehearsals begin August 10, 2013. Performances are September 6 - October 6, 2013

Auditions are by appointment only.

Please email info@austinplayhouse.com or call (512) 476-0084 for an audition slot. Please bring a headshot and resume and prepare 16 bars to show your range (traditional/classical musical theatre preferred). An accompanist will be provided.

Man of La Mancha, Georgetown Palace, October 2 - November 1

The Georgetown Palace production of Man of La Mancha starts out moody, atmospheric and harsh, and it comes surging beautifully through that dark, difficult second act.

The Inquisition is awaiting in the darkness above, and Cervantes is storytelling to save his life and possessions from the thieves and murderers who surround him. In Cervantes' fantastical tale of the deranged Alonso Quijana, that Knight of the Woeful Countenance has lost it. The knight's beloved Dulcinea--Aldonza the prostitute and scullery maid--has been gang raped, and he doesn't know it.

Dulcinea curses Quijana for his foolishness and his misguided belief that life contains any hope at all.

Then, in the filth and stink both of the prison before us and of the misadventures of his quest, Joe Penrod as Cervantes/Quijana/Quijote replies with The Impossible Dream:

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 be better far than you are;
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star . . . .

It's an exalting and inspired moment, one that squeezes the heart and puts into you the dizzy hope of beauty, meaning and peace.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Man of La Mancha, Georgetown Palace Theatre, October 2 - November 1

Click for ALT review of October 7

Found on-line:

Man of La Mancha

Georgetown Palace Theatre
October 2 - November 1

The Palace Theatre in Historic Georgetown invites you to “Dream the Impossible Dream” as they open the musical Man of La Mancha on Friday, October 2nd, for a five-weekend run. In this quest for adventure and music the storyteller Cervantes portrays the ultimate Knight Errant, Don Quixote!

Written by Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh, and Joe Darian and directed by Ron Watson, Man of La Mancha is generously sponsored by James Avery.

The wild winds of fortune have swept Cervantes into the Spanish Inquisition where he sits in jail awaiting trial. There he entertains his fellow prisoners as Don Quixote with tales of chivalry and battles with evil (and windmills). We meet his sidekick Sancho and the serving girl, Aldonza, whom Don Quixote imagines is the beautiful Lady Dulcinea. Both the prisoners and the audience will be deeply affected by the sweeping story and the soaring music of this timeless tale of adventure and love in unexpected places.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .