Man of La Mancha

It was this.

It was Man of La Mancha.

It was Finding Nemo and Finding Nemo Jr.

And Cat in the Hat Jr.

I love it.

And then also this was fun.

And then I actually very much dislike Man of La Mancha and did not enjoy anything about that production.

So this was one that at least was like a little bit fun.

did.

And at the Candlelight in Man of La Mancha.

So that was a lovely experience having that.

And then...

Yeah.

You said that your first exposure, I guess, to anything Don Quixote-related was that episode of Quantum Leap where Sam is understudying in Man of La Mancha.

Was there any temptation to put little Easter eggs or nods to... other things having to do with Don Quixote, like, you know, like Man of La Mancha or, I mean, it's, it's something that is kind of like pervasive because it's, it was essentially the, if any listeners for some reason don't know, I mean, it's considered like really the first novel it's, it's, you know, it's been adapted to many different forms and,

Um, yeah, I mean, there's like, uh, I've, there's definitely like parts from the novel that I've tried to retain.

Um, and also just sort of a general shape of things.

go to bed let me go

uh mine is from mad cave so it's in the lunar catalog page 444 and file this under the category of don't f this up It is La Mancha, as in Man of La Mancha.

Man of.

Yes.

I love Don Quixote.

I love the story of it.

I love the musical Man of La Mancha.

I love any kind of variation of it.

Oh, golly, you know what would get me out of retirement? It's kind of embarrassing, but it's true.

Man of La Mancha.

I love that story.

I love Don Quixote.

and over the years Icarus kind of ended up kind of retiring or sunsetting and there was a gap there so we decided to take up that space and initially the concept was that we'd be doing mostly drama and occasional musicals and that's still what we're doing we're still primarily a drama group who does musicals occasionally so normally we would only do a musical every second year and we fill in between then with large scale or smaller scale dramatic productions but Yeah, I suppose our first musical was 10 years ago.

We did Man of La Mancha.

And then two years later, we did In the Heights.

And then after that, we did Our House.

It was always the voice of Tintin, coming from Mexico, one of the most... amazing comedians that El Siglo de Oro del Cine Mexicano, the golden years of Mexican cinema gave to us.

And I was passionate about Man of La Mancha, for example, the role of Don Quixote.

So I was passionate about not only singing, but creating characters while singing, being the King Louie or Baloo or the Serpent K or O'Malley de la Raval or Don Quixote de la Mancha or Sancho Panza.

And it was curiously enough, because I was singing so much the music of Man of La Mancha, and with a kind of voice, it cannot be called operatic, but with a voice that was different, let's say, to a pop voice technique, that as a young boy, I was giving as a present the LP of Perhaps Love.

perhaps love the music of Placido Domingo singing crossover songs.

I encountered this voice.

This did some chart action for Jack Jones.

2,328 performances of Richard Kiley as the Man of La Mancha, and, uh, well, here's The Impossible Dream.

To dream the impossible dream.

To fight the unbeatable foe.

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest, that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this, that one man, scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star

Ah, The Impossible Dream, Jack Jones from Man of La Mancha.

All of those from 1965.

Isn't that so funny? Don Quixote.

Man of La Mancha.

There we go.

Don Quixote, the man of La Mancha.

that i want to it's a that's a great song i really love that song um so we're playing a medley of tunes from that it includes a little bird dulcinea uh

dulcinea is beautiful

yeah that's a beautiful one of course uh i uh i am i don quixote uh the man of la mancha so um a great piece that the band has played many times and and you can tell that they like it uh you know when it was put on their stand like some of them who have been around for a really long time yeah i remember playing this one back in the early part of the band's existence um and then we closed the concert with john phillips of

course

Um, I'm talking about stuff like Camelot and Sound of Music and My Fair Lady, which was one of my favorite shows.

Cabaret, Hello, Dolly, Man of La Mancha.

Uh, I don't th- I'm pretty sure you wouldn't get the musical Hair in 1968.

I think that would just be too edgy had, um, either of the Schubert brothers lived long enough or, you know, they continued to control the industry.