http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20121026/NJENT05/310260018/A-mean-lean-La-Mancha-?nclick_check=1 A mean, lean 'La Mancha' Written by C. W. Walker For the Daily Record Oct 25 dailyrecord.com

PRESENTED BY: Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

WHERE: F.M. Kirby Theatre, Drew University campus, 36 Madison Ave., Madison

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesday and Sundays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 18

TICKETS: $42-$80; discounts available

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison rarely presents a musical and there are several good reasons for that. The most obvious, of course, is the strict budget and limited resources of a non-profit theater. Another is physical space: the F. M. Kirby Theatre on the campus of Drew University is cozy, bringing the audience and cast together, up close and personal. Even if you could get a full chorus on stage, there’s always the problem of where to put the orchestra.

But then again, other companies perform musicals in even smaller, less accommodating spaces. The real reason, one suspects, is the tension between the Shakespeare Theatre’s mission of presenting works that are both thoughtful as well as entertaining and current audience expectations. For, the American musical — perhaps unfairly — has become associated with elaborate spectacle and big sloppy emotions. With the over-produced, overpriced, tourist-attracting extravaganzas now dominating Broadway, the concept of an “intimate” musical has become an oxymoron.

So it may seem surprising, at least at first glance, that the folks at STNJ might want to tackle “Man of La Mancha,” known primarily by its signature hit, “The Impossible Dream,” sung by every cabaret crooner since the show premiered on Broadway in 1965. What is little known today is that the work began life as a non-musical drama written for television in 1959. Its author, Dale Wasserman, also wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and both stories focus on imaginative, idealistic, even radical dreamers bucking the system.

Indeed, the “man” of title is not the fictional Don Quixote, the delusional gentleman turned mad knight who jousts with windmills, but Miguel de Cervantes himself, the 16th century playwright (he and Shakespeare died around the same time), who employs Quixote’s story as a defense against his fellow prisoners while he awaits trial by the Spanish Inquisition. The play within a play becomes an overarching metaphor for the tension between reality and illusion, and an argument for the value of the artist who doesn’t portray life like it is, but as it should be.

No doubt, it was these elements that interested director Bonnie J. Monte who also serves as the Shakespeare Theatre’s artistic director. As Brian B. Crowe did with the previous production of “Oliver Twist,” Monte returns to the original source material. The circumscribed space of the F. M. Kirby becomes the fetid common area of a scary dungeon designed by the always reliable Michael Schweikardt, its farthest corners shrouded with shredded netting and shadow. Even as Cervantes orchestrates and shares his heroic vision, we in the audience never lose sight of the fact that his makeshift cast is composed of thieves, whores and a murderer or two, all of whom will most likely be condemned after this elaborate charade is ended. They interact with Cervantes and each other constantly, their improvised roles mirroring their actual circumstances. Eventually, they are won over to his “impossible dream” and, not so incidentally, so are we.

Page 1 of 2 26/10/2012 11:25 AM http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20121026/NJENT05/310260018/A-mean-lean-La-Mancha-?nclick_check=1 Monte’s approach is sophisticated, complex and multi-layered, minimizing sentimentality and bombast whenever possible. If there’s such a thing as a cerebral “Man of La Mancha,” this is it. To that end, music director Doug Oberhamer has trimmed the Mitch Leigh/Joe Darion score — the overture has been completely jettisoned — thus reducing the running time of the show to a lean, mean two hours.

Monte has also deliberately cast against type for the three principals. In the role of Cervantes, it’s hard to believe that William Michals was not a first choice. A bit shorter and stouter than the iconic figure of Quixote, Michals has a classically-trained speaking voice and a rich, sure baritone when he sings. He’s sort of a cross between John Cullum and Patrick Stewart. Blake Pfeil give us a younger, thinner and more naïve Sancho, more the eager apprentice than a worldly observant sidekick, but somehow, it works.

Far less successful is the counter-intuitive strategy used to create Jane Pfitsch’s Aldonza. With her steely reserve and pixie cut hairdo, this Aldonza is light years away from the pragmatic, sensual and earthy woman redeemed by Quixote’s chaste love. It’s as if Isabella from “Measure for Measure” suddenly stopped by on her way to plead for her brother’s life. The sexy Latina spitfire stereotype is certainly ripe for feminist reinterpretation, but this time, it dilutes the character’s impact and weakens the ultimate payoff of the story.

Page 2 of 2 26/10/2012 11:25 AM