Don Quixote and Sancho Panza will ride beyond Manhattan following the Dec. 5 Broadway bow of the new revival of Man of La Mancha. The Road Company, a production outfit which books national tours, is advertising a road staging of the Dale Wasserman-Mitch Leigh-Joe Darion musical. The tour will go out sometime during the 2003-04 season.
No official announcement regarding a tour of the Broadway revival has been released.
The show is to tryout at Washington's National Theatre, Oct. 8-Nov. 10, before beginning previews on Broadway at the Martin Beck Nov. 19. The official opening date is Dec. 5.
Mark Jacoby, Stephen Bogardus, Don Mayo and Natascia Diaz will take key supporting roles in the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha, which stars Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ernie Sabella as Don Quixote, Aldonza and Sancho.
Jonathan Kent, the London director behind such Britain to-Broadway hits as Medea with Diana Rigg and Hamlet with Ralph Fiennes, will be at the helm. Also in the cast are Bradley Dean, Olga Merediz, Frederick B. Owens, Jamie Torcellini, Timothy J. Alex, Andy Blankenbuehler, John Herrera, Jamie Karen, Lorin Latarro, Carlos Lopez, Wilson Mendieta, Gregory Mitchell, Richard Montoya, Michelle Rios, Thom Sesma, Jimmy Smagula, Dennis Stowe and Allyson Tucker.
Man of La Mancha, from 1965, brought the world "The Impossible Dream," the durable and widely-known inspirational ballad. The song explained the philosophy of the impoverished, addled Spaniard, Don Quixote, who believed himself to be a knight who would "right the unrightable wrong" and "reach the unreachable star."
Mitchell was recently seen on Broadway in King Hedley II, and, before that, in Kiss Me, Kate, for which he won a Tony. He also starred in Ragtime.
Mastrantonio was last seen on the New York stage a decade ago in a Central Park mounting of Twelfth Night. She played Viola. Her Broadway credits include West Side Story, Copperfield, Oh, Brother, The Human Comedy and The Marriage of Figaro.
Sabella made his name playing the hoarse-voiced Harry the Horse opposite Nathan Lane's Nathan Detroit in Broadway's Guys and Dolls and has since starred with Lane in several other vehicles, including A Funny Thing Happened... on Broadway, "Encore! Encore!" on television and "The Lion King" on the big screen.
Jacoby (The Visit, Show Boat, Ragtime) will play the Padre. Bogardus (High Society, Falsettos) is The Duke and Dr. Carrasco. Mayo (On the Town, The Scarlet Pimpernel) portrays the Innkeeper. Diaz (The Seussical, The Capeman) is Antonia.
David Stone, Jon B. Platt, John Reid, Sandy Gallin/Susan Gallin & USA Ostar Theatricals will produce. The design team includes sets and costumes by Paul Brown; lighting design by Paul Gallo; and sound design by Tony Meola.
The musical, which won a Tony for Best Musical in 1965, was drawn from Miguel Cervantes' 17th century novel, "Don Quixote," as distilled through a script by Dale Wasserman. The music is by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics by Joe Darion, who died last year. Leigh wrote several songs for the show with the poet W.H. Auden, but they disagreed about aspects of the project, so Darion was enlisted. The show began life at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, and had a smash success for 2,328 performances on Broadway.
For tickets call Telecharge, (212) 239-6200.
