Man of la Mancha - Original Cast (CD 1990)

From the very first note of the overture The Man of La Mancha sweeps me into an alternate universe filled with chivalry and longing, pure goodness and pure love. The strumming guitars and heavy beat and multi-layers of melodies can carry me off even before those glorious words ram home these ideals. Joe Darien and Mitch Leigh together wrote some amazing songs, songs that evoke all of the feelings of the characters of the play, songs that make me dream, that make me strive to be more than I think I am. I shall impersonate a man. Come, enter into my imagination and see him... Bony, hollow faced.

I've never read "Don Quixote" by Miguel Cervantes. Weighing in at over 1000 pages, and given my normal lazy reading habits, I'm sure I never will. Unless I'm in a body cast and have a trained monkey who's a skilled page-turner, I just don't see it happening. Not only because of the size, but because I feel like I've already learned the most important lessons of the book by seeing the play "The Man of La Mancha." I'm SURE there's a lot more to the book than just the story as told in a Musical, but ya know, I've already learned a little from that much of it, and I'm content with that. I'm sated.

My parents were never big Broadway theater buffs, but they did enjoy the music. As a result, I grew up listening to many of the original Broadway cast recordings on LP. One of my favorite recordings was the original cast recording of Man of La Mancha. Aside from the music, which I enjoyed, the best thing about this record was that there was enough material leading into each song that I could understand the story. Too many recordings were just the music out of context. This one gave me context. I'm not sure that as a child I had the entire story right, but I was able to work out a story for...

Think "Man of La Mancha" and the first song that pops into your head is the anthem "Impossible Dream". Most people don't know that there is much more to the music of "La Mancha" than that tune! Even though the show is named for the "Don Quixote" character, Joan Diener as the feisty Aldonza is the standout here. She delivers each song in a sturdy, classically-trained mezzo-soprano. She is dramatic as well as lovely-sounding. Ensemble songs such as "Little Bird" and "I'm only thinking of him" are fun, hummable, and give a definite Spanish feel . Richard Kiley is a confident Don Quixote, in his.