Filled with enthusiasm, slapstick comedy and high energy routines, Musical Theater West’s “Man of La Mancha” opened last weekend at The Carpenter Performing Arts Center to sold out shows.
This Tony award-winning musical takes place in a 1594 prison cell during the Spanish Inquisition. The plot begins as Miguel de Cervantes, the protagonist, is thrown into prison and put on trial by other prisoners to save his personal belongings, including a manuscript to a novel. Through his defense, he re-enacts some of the hilarious misadventures of the manuscript’s hero, Don Quixote de La Mancha, in order to protect it from being destroyed.
The story is a play within a play as Cervantes (Davis Gaines) becomes Alonso Quijana, an old educated man who goes mad and renames himself Don Quixote, a knight-errant who along with his faithful manservant, Sancho (Justin Robertson) chases “the quest” and “the impossible dream.” Quixote lives in a complete fantasy world filled with ogres, knights and castles, while Sancho and the rest of the cast is grounded in reality. Yet the dynamic between the two men makes the audience question where true reality lies.
Although a bit confusing at first, the play comes alive when Cervantes becomes Don Quixote during the first number “Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote).” Gaines gives a continuously powerful performance throughout the show, completely enrapturing the audience with his incredible voice. As Don Quixote lures his fellow prisoners into his story, the audience is also completely pulled into his imagined world.
As Don Quixote, Gaines is wonderfully enthusiastic and optimistic which creates a character that completely wins over the audience. Throughout the play, the audience is aware that the inn is not a castle and Aldonza is an ugly kitchen maid and not a fair maiden. However, Gaines’ performance makes one believe in his reality while rejecting the actual one. His passionate beliefs and wide operatic vocal range totally engross the audience.
The differences between Quixote’s imagination and the reality are highlighted through the hilarious narrations and dialogue between the characters. Especially through his interactions with his love interest Aldonza, or Dulcinea to Quixote, (Lesli Margherita0. Her performance as the tough and sarcastic, yet also caring Aldonza matches the other leads in talent. Her powerful renditions of her solos, “What does he want of me?” and “Aldonza” are easily met with enduring applause from the audience.
Aldonza is the antithesis to Don Quixote as she is the only character who questions and rejects his wild fantasy. The chemistry between Gaines and Margherita is fantastic; the two opposites slowly come together as Aldonza is seduced into Quixote’s fantasy world. Margherita’s Aldonza is masculine, rough and skeptical. However, throughout the musical, the audience can track her transformation into her true core as a fragile, vulnerable and abused woman.
Also matching the leads in high vocal quality are the ensemble characters. The muleteers who are at the inn are all strong singers whose malicious and disgusting characters enhance the feminine characteristics of Aldonza.
Some other standout performances include Karenssa Legear as Antonia, Quijana’s niece, and Damon Kirsche as her sinister fiancé Dr. Carrasco. These two characters participate in two scene-stealing numbers in the show. Legear’s high soprano vocals enchant the audience in “I’m only thinking of him,” creating a sweet, sensitive characteristic for the loving niece. Kirsches’ performance as the Knight of the Mirrors does the complete opposite in frightening the audience and Don Quixote.
Overall, this production of this musical classic enthralls and captures the audience’s attention with incredible vocal quality from the entire cast, hilarious dialogue and powerful performances that personify the theme of dreaming the impossible dream.
“Man of La Mancha” runs through Feb. 26. in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ticket prices start at $20. For more information or to buy tickets, visit musical.org.
