Man of La Mancha

He may be a ripe 50 years old, but Man Of La Mancha looks to be in the pink of his health. The musical that first graced the stages of Broadway half a century ago has taken the stage of the Reginald Theatre at the Seymour Centre.

The only question is: why the Reginald and not the main York Theatre? With a full house on opening night and half the season already sold out to date, it’d be a crime that anyone should have to miss Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre’s brilliant rendition of the beloved musical. Yes, brilliant.

We start with a darkened stage and a cast of ten? – 12? – no, 13 vagabond characters hidden in the shadows of a prison cell, though they’re instantly awakened by the appearance of Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant. Cervantes is here to be trialled with foreclosing on a monastery – but while he awaits his hearing, this pack decides to assume the role of justice-bearers instead.

With a manuscript/package that he’s loath to see his peer burn and a poet’s tongue at the ready, Cervantes convinces the ‘judge’ that he deserves a fair hearing and proceeds to state his case in the only way he knows how: through story.

Armed with his trunk of costumes and props, he proceeds to dress each of the prisoners, coaching them on their roles in an elaborate tale about Alonso Quijana – an elderly man destined to uphold chivalry by entertaining the notion that he is the aspiring knight Don Quixote de la Mancha – and his loyal squire, Sancho. Together they embark on the most Monty Python-esque of adventures, seeing the world not as it is, but as it should be.

To Quixote, a windmill becomes a four-armed monster, an inn becomes a castle where he may be dubbed (or “drubbed”, as Sancho calls it) a knight, and a town whore becomes the most beautiful and virginal maiden, Dulcinea.

It’s comedy and farce done right, drawing the audience in with its hilarity, and leaving with them that undeniable belief in righteousness, determination and purity of heart that Cervantes/Quixote (Tony Sheldon) so richly upholds. The vocals are impeccable, as is the 17-strong cast; each vital chess pieces in this game of justice, morality, dreams, and love. Who will win? Only the judge will know.

4.5/5 stars

Man Of La Mancha is playing at the Seymour Centre until Saturday March 21.