I, Don Quixote
Encyclopedia
I, Don Quixote is a non-musical play written for television
, and broadcast on the CBS
anthology series DuPont Show of the Month
on the evening of November 9, 1959. Written by Dale Wasserman
, the play was converted by him ca. 1964 into the libretto
for the stage musical Man of La Mancha
, with songs by Mitch Leigh
and Joe Darion
. After a tryout at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, Man of La Mancha opened in New York on November 22, 1965, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre.
The title of the 1959 teleplay was originally Man of La Mancha, but sponsor DuPont Corp. objected and producer David Susskind
changed it to the more specific I, Don Quixote, fearing that the TV audience would not know who Wasserman was referring to if the original title was used. When the teleplay was made into the famous stage musical, the writers decided to trust their audiences, and reverted the title back to Man of La Mancha.
I, Don Quixote has almost exactly the same plot and even much of the same dialogue
as Man of La Mancha. Even the famous opening two lines of La Manchas hit song The Impossible Dream
appeared in this teleplay. According to a recently published academic book chapter by Cervantes scholar Howard Mancing, these lines and a few others were originally written as part of a preface for the now-forgotten 1908 play "Don Quixote" by Paul Kester.
Wasserman, however, always claimed that the lines were his own, despite the allegation that they appeared in print six years before he was born. Wasserman himself noted that he had tried to cut the impossible dream speech from the teleplay due to a need to fit the performance into the 90 minute slot, but that Lee J. Cobb
, who played both Miguel de Cervantes
and Don Quixote (despite the fact that Cobb was rather beefy and Don Quixote is supposed to be thin), had insisted it go back in. The famous apocryphal 1600 portrait of Cervantes bears somewhat of a resemblance to Cobb; perhaps this is one of the reasons that he was chosen for the role.
I, Don Quixote starred, in addition to Cobb, Colleen Dewhurst
(in her first major role) as Aldonza/Dulcinea, Eli Wallach
as Cervantes' Manservant as well as Sancho Panza
, and Hurd Hatfield
as Sanson Carrasco as well as a character called The Duke.
s, instead of taking place in the early part of the story, as in both Cervantes's novel and the musical, here takes place towards the end.
The cynical prisoner known as "The Duke", who plays Dr. Sanson Carrasco in the Don Quixote scenes, is here identified as being British, not Spanish, a fact that places him in considerably more jeopardy with regard to his fate (Spain and England were mortal enemies at the time). In Man of La Mancha, he is depicted as probably being Spanish. In I, Don Quixote, he reveals his terror over his possible fate at the end, when, along with Cervantes and the manservant, he is summoned to face the Inquisition; in Man of La Mancha, only Cervantes and the manservant are summoned at the end, and "The Duke" reacts with no emotion.
, starring Peter O'Toole
and Sophia Loren
. It is taken directly from the original TV play I, Don Quixote. Some of this dialogue fleshes out the personality of "The Duke", when he reveals himself as an informer who deliberately sells misleading information about countries to willing buyers. It was restored to the film version of the musical after having been cut from the stage libretto.
award for his work. After it was shown, Wasserman optioned it for Broadway
, but the option was not picked up. Stage director Albert Marre
finally read it and suggested that it should be turned into a musical.
I, Don Quixote has not been re-broadcast on television since 1959, and is reportedly only available on bootleg videos. Its script, however, was published in Dale Wasserman's memoir, The Impossible Musical.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, and broadcast on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
anthology series DuPont Show of the Month
DuPont Show of the Month
DuPont Show of the Month, an acclaimed 90-minute television anthology series, aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. The DuPont Company also sponsored a weekly half-hour anthology drama series hosted by June Allyson, The DuPont Show with June Allyson .During the Golden Age of Television, DuPont...
on the evening of November 9, 1959. Written by Dale Wasserman
Dale Wasserman
Dale Wasserman was an American playwright. -Early life:Dale Wasserman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was orphaned at the age of nine. He lived in a state orphanage and with an older brother in South Dakota before he "hit the rails". He later said:-Career:Wasserman worked in various...
, the play was converted by him ca. 1964 into the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for the stage musical Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
, with songs by Mitch Leigh
Mitch Leigh
Mitch Leigh is an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man Of La Mancha.-Biography:Leigh was born in Brooklyn, New York) as Irwin Michnick...
and Joe Darion
Joe Darion
Joe Darion, was an American musical theatre lyricist, most famous for Man of La Mancha.Darion was born in New York City and died in Lebanon, New Hampshire.-External links:* at the Internet Broadway Database...
. After a tryout at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, Man of La Mancha opened in New York on November 22, 1965, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre.
The title of the 1959 teleplay was originally Man of La Mancha, but sponsor DuPont Corp. objected and producer David Susskind
David Susskind
David Susskind was a producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a pioneer TV talk show host.-Personal:...
changed it to the more specific I, Don Quixote, fearing that the TV audience would not know who Wasserman was referring to if the original title was used. When the teleplay was made into the famous stage musical, the writers decided to trust their audiences, and reverted the title back to Man of La Mancha.
I, Don Quixote has almost exactly the same plot and even much of the same dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
as Man of La Mancha. Even the famous opening two lines of La Manchas hit song The Impossible Dream
The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
"The Impossible Dream " is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. It was written for the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha...
appeared in this teleplay. According to a recently published academic book chapter by Cervantes scholar Howard Mancing, these lines and a few others were originally written as part of a preface for the now-forgotten 1908 play "Don Quixote" by Paul Kester.
Wasserman, however, always claimed that the lines were his own, despite the allegation that they appeared in print six years before he was born. Wasserman himself noted that he had tried to cut the impossible dream speech from the teleplay due to a need to fit the performance into the 90 minute slot, but that Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, who played both Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
and Don Quixote (despite the fact that Cobb was rather beefy and Don Quixote is supposed to be thin), had insisted it go back in. The famous apocryphal 1600 portrait of Cervantes bears somewhat of a resemblance to Cobb; perhaps this is one of the reasons that he was chosen for the role.
I, Don Quixote starred, in addition to Cobb, Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...
(in her first major role) as Aldonza/Dulcinea, Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
as Cervantes' Manservant as well as Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
, and Hurd Hatfield
Hurd Hatfield
William Rukard Hurd Hatfield was an American actor.-Biography:The son of William Henry Hatfield , an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, the former Adele Steele, Hatfield was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University before travelling to...
as Sanson Carrasco as well as a character called The Duke.
Plot summary
Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant have been thrown into a dungeon by the Spanish Inquisition for an offense against the Church. In the dungeon, a mock trial is staged, with its intention being that the prisoners rob Cervantes of all of his possessions, including a precious manuscript that he refuses to give up. It is, of course, the yet-to-be-published manuscript of Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cervantes's masterpiece. In defending himself, Cervantes begins to narrate his story of Don Quixote, with Cervantes as the Don, the role of Sancho enacted by Cervantes' own manservant, and the other characters in the story played by the other prisoners.Differences between teleplay and musical
In the teleplay, however, there are fewer transitions from the prison to the Don Quixote scenes than there are in the musical. The teleplay also includes many adventures from the Cervantes novel which had to be left out of Man of La Mancha due to time constraints, such as the attack on the flock of sheep. The encounter with the windmillWindmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
s, instead of taking place in the early part of the story, as in both Cervantes's novel and the musical, here takes place towards the end.
The cynical prisoner known as "The Duke", who plays Dr. Sanson Carrasco in the Don Quixote scenes, is here identified as being British, not Spanish, a fact that places him in considerably more jeopardy with regard to his fate (Spain and England were mortal enemies at the time). In Man of La Mancha, he is depicted as probably being Spanish. In I, Don Quixote, he reveals his terror over his possible fate at the end, when, along with Cervantes and the manservant, he is summoned to face the Inquisition; in Man of La Mancha, only Cervantes and the manservant are summoned at the end, and "The Duke" reacts with no emotion.
Additional dialogue in the film "Man of La Mancha"
There is some additional and unfamiliar dialogue heard in the 1972 film version of Man of La ManchaMan of La Mancha (film)
Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion...
, starring Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
. It is taken directly from the original TV play I, Don Quixote. Some of this dialogue fleshes out the personality of "The Duke", when he reveals himself as an informer who deliberately sells misleading information about countries to willing buyers. It was restored to the film version of the musical after having been cut from the stage libretto.
Teleplay Reception
I, Don Quixote was highly acclaimed, but, oddly enough, did not win any Emmy nominations, although Dale Wasserman received a Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
award for his work. After it was shown, Wasserman optioned it for Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, but the option was not picked up. Stage director Albert Marre
Albert Marre
Albert Marre is an American director and producer in the theatre.Born in New York City, Marre made his Broadway debut as an actor and associate director of the 1950 revival of John Vanbrugh's Restoration comedy The Relapse...
finally read it and suggested that it should be turned into a musical.
I, Don Quixote has not been re-broadcast on television since 1959, and is reportedly only available on bootleg videos. Its script, however, was published in Dale Wasserman's memoir, The Impossible Musical.