Review - Man of La Mancha (Originally posted November 12, 2009)

*UPDATE! The show has been extended to December 20th. Go see it!*

Before I get into this review I have a little story that I would like to pass on to you. It is important to the review as it will tell you how I was feeling before I saw it. I ask you to be patient and bear with me.

Prior to going to this show I had another play I went to. That play ended well and I was in good spirits when I left the theatre. Because I had nearly 3 hours between plays I decided to stop off and have lunch at a restaurant I had never been to before. That restaurant was called the Firehouse. With out getting to deeply into that as I will have a review of that restaurant in the near future I can sum it up quickly by saying I did not enjoy it. So I left the restaurant, my feelings swinging to the low end but I had a show to go to yet. I had plenty of time to get to the show but traffic was very bad on the far north side of Chicago so it took a lot longer than I thought it would. However at this point I still had plenty of time.

Then I got to the neighborhood that the next play was showing at. It was in a small cabaret called The No Exit Café, and is situated in a residential area with two streets lined with trendy shops, cafes and clubs with in walking distance. What this means is that parking was horrendous. Between driveways, fire hydrants, bus stops, residents parked and visitors to the area parked it took me seemingly forever to find a parking spot. I drove around for about 30 minutes in a 4 block radius of the Café wasting a lot of gas. My SUV is not made for stop and go city driving. Finally when I was about to give up and go home a spot opened up about 2 ½ blocks from the location.

Now instead of having the 50 plus minute I thought I would have before the show I had about 20 mins. Still plenty of time but the parking had taken up enough time that by now I was getting nervous about missing the show. I relaxed a bit, gathered up my reservation information and started heading to the show. Fortunately for me it was raining and I didn’t have an umbrella. For those of you who didn’t get it, that was sarcasm. I now walked the 2 ½ blocks in rain dodging between awnings, heavy tree coverage and any thing else I could find. I was still fairly wet by the time I got there but at least I was not soaked. Again fortunately for me the rain began to stop. (more sarcasm)

I popped in to the Café and saw a small seating area of tables and chairs with a stage to my right. It appeared that some of the actors were on stage already and they were dressed in pajamas. Pajamas? Pajamas! Oh great, I thought, this is some kind of interpretive crap that I am not going to like. Let me back up a moment. I’m not saying that I don’t like interpretive work I just was not in the mood for it and this is a favorite story of mine and I did not want it fiddled with. I was just about to throw the money away and walk out when a girl asked me if I was here for the show and my name. Before I could say ‘no I must be lost’ I blurted my name out and she found me on their reserved list.

After she found my name she escorted me to my seat. Unfortunately because I had come alone I did not get one of the seats at the tables’ right in front of the stage but was taken to a raised platform to the left and a little further back from the stage. So this was my final insult. Because I had come alone I was not seated in the prime area but rather what felt like the lonely, loser area. I said ‘hi’ to the other 4 people sitting there. We ostracized need to stick together you know. Well the Café is not very big so there is not really any ‘bad’ seating, it just felt like you were sitting in the equivalent of nosebleed seats at a sporting event.

So here I was at my lowest point in the day ready to see the play Man of La Mancha.

Now remember how I felt at this point. It will be important later.

‘Man of La Mancha’ is the story of Miguel de Cervantes who is thrown into prison during the time of The Inquisition. While there he is put on a mock trial by the rest of the prisoners who if they find him guilty will take all of his possessions. He freely gives it all up with the exception of a manuscript that the other prisoners are eager to burn. He wishes to put up a defense for the manuscript and the other prisoners allow him to do so. His defense is in the form of a play that he, his manservant Sancho and the other prisoners will play parts in it. This story is a play within a play and many of the actors have dual roles to play. This production was done by The Theo Obique Theatre Company.

The cast consist of:

• Cervantes/Don Quixote………….Danielle Brothers
• Aldonza………………………….Sarah Hayes
• Sancho…………………………...Anthony John Lawrence Apodaca
• Barber……………………………Trisha Hart Ditsworth
• Anselmo/Housekeeper…………..Kyle Greer
• Inkeeper…………………………Micheal Herschberg
• Governor/Pedro………………….Kent L Joseph
• Duke/Dr. Carrasco……………….Tom Moore
• Antonia…………………………...Maggie Portman
• Padre……………………………...Daniel Waters
• Captain/Violin……………………Jennifer Young

(picture of some of the cast)

It is also a musical with a total of 25 songs sung as solos, duets and by entire cast. Those songs were:

Act One

1. Man of La Mancha
2. It’s All the Same
3. Dulcinea
4. I’m Only Thinking of Him
5. We’re Only Thinking of Him
6. I Really Like Him
7. What Does He Want of Me
8. Little Bird, Little Bird
9. Barber’s Song
10. Golden Helmet
11. To Each His Dulcinea
12. The Impossible Dream

Act Two

1. The Combat
2. Knight of the Woeful Countenance
3. The Abduction
4. The Impossible Dream
5. Man of La Mancha
6. Moorish Dance
7. Aldonza
8. A Little Gossip
9. Dulcinea
10. The Impossible Dream
11. Man of La Mancha
12. The Psalm
13. Finale

Now you didn’t read the actors wrong if that’s what you’re thinking. Miguel Cervantes/Don Quixote is played by Danielle Brothers. Ok I had some reservations going in to see the show as I was not sure about a woman playing the part of such an important male lead. I was totally wrong! Brothers is incredible! Five minutes into the performance and she is no longer a woman but rather she IS Don Quixote. She delivers her lines with a passion that makes you feel all she is going through. I was dumbstruck as I watched her perform. I don’t know if because I was sitting on the edge of my chair at times when she was delivering her lines or what but I felt like, I’m almost sure, that she was looking and speaking to me. It’s a small cabaret and when someone who is less than twenty feet away makes eye contact with you, you know. I firmly believe she was speaking to me and I always will.

But even if she wasn’t, she still became something more than an actress reciting lines. I will never forget the command she had over the story and the command she had over the audience.

The other players were excellent as well but I want to mention a few of them specifically.

Anthony Apodaca, Sancho, was the perfect faithful companion. He stood by his master at all times and was very funny at the appropriate times. He was loyal to the end. His ‘I Really Like Him’ sums it up perfectly. You can’t put your finger on it but you know you like him and that’s all there is to it.

Tom Moore who played the Duke/Dr. Carrasco was a great villain. It is my belief that a great villain can make a good story, great or save a bad one. He was evil, nasty and remorseless. At one point I wanted to go up and hit him. If as an actor you are trying to get me to hate you and you succeed, congratulations. During intermission I stepped outside for a smoke as did Moore. I told him just so much and he said ‘yes that’s what I’m going for.’ Bravo Tom, well done.

As much as I was impressed by the performance of Brothers as Don Quixote I was equally as surprised at the performance Sarah Hayes does as Aldonza. She had the character down right, the hardened bar maid who is used to be being mistreated by the ruffians she serves to a point that she has no self-wealth anymore. In walks Quixote who constantly calls her Dulcinea and intrigues her as much as he confuses her. He sings to her ‘Dulcinea’ which is a love song but is not a love song about a woman necessarily but a love song that loves the idea of ‘Dulcinea’ not as a person but as the concept of everything that is good in a woman. When Hayes sang the song ‘Aldonza’ she did a great job. It was powerful, mean and angry, everything up to the point that the character Aldonza was supposed to be. She moved, gyrated, slammed fist and stomped angrily across the stage. And then she sang ‘Dulcinea’.

I was absolutely floored. I could not believe the angelic sound that resonated from this woman. I just wasn’t expecting it. It was almost more operatic than just singing. As she moves across the floor you get that she too has fallen in love with the concept of a ‘Dulcinea’. It was VERY moving. I shed a tear as she reached the end of the song as I do now remembering the performance. There are something that you are glad that you did not miss out on in life. The moment of her singing the song was one of those for me.

The rest of the cast was incredible as well but I wanted to make special note of those above. I will say this about the rest of them. If you ever want actors playing the part of the insane where you can see in their eyes that there is not something going on right in their heads, these are your people. Some of them look right through you and can send a shiver down your spine. Well done all.

Ok so lets back up for a minute. Remember the beginning of this review? How crappy my day was going? Well after I saw this production I was in an incredibly good mood. I do know most of the songs word for word so they swam through my head over and over again on the long car ride home. I felt renewed. Day to day life can get you down sometimes with out you even realizing it. But after seeing and hearing the heroic battle that one man makes against insurmountable odds and yet still wins as he affects a change you remember that you too have the strength to carry on and go on fighting!

If you haven’t guess what I'm giving this show by now then I must have truly done something wrong. Just in case you didn’t I am giving it a big fat 10. In fact if there were something higher on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it that. I loved the play and would go to see it again at the drop of a hat. It is only showing until November 22nd so there is still time to see it. Go. I can not imagine you not loving the experience.