All systems are go for 'Man of La Mancha' at Army Community Theatre.

A lighting board failure on Thursday's opening night caused the show to go on with only follow spots, but 'Man of La Mancha' found its legs on Friday with a musically solid production that satisfies the ear and the heart. It's a real contender, even after a hard-to-beat season-opening production of 'Gypsy.'

The show has no traditional choreography, only one set, and - with the dimmers working - seems etched out of shadows by lighting designer John Parkinson. It's a somber stage picture, set in a dungeon where playwright and poet Miguel de Cervantes awaits his turn before the Spanish Inquisition.

Cervantes diverts his ravenous fellow prisoners by enacting the story of his unfinished novel 'Don Quixote.' As he reaches the climax of this play within a play, Cervantes draws on Quixote's idealism to gain strength to face his judges.

It's a gritty, challenging musical, and while director John Mount pulls back a bit from the stage violence that electrified the original Broadway production, he's selected a cast that measures up to the musical demands.

All the singers are good and, when musical director Lina Jeong Doo has them singing parts embellished by grace notes in the upper octaves and supports them with an excellent orchestra, the sound is positively thrilling.

Bryan Bender takes the title role as Cervantes/Quixote and makes the character large and vital, with a quirky penchant for imagining himself in an era of romance and chivalry. By underplaying Quixote's delusions and physical frailty, he becomes less vulnerable and more comic. The approach helps balance the play's abundant darkness, but it also dulls the psychological edge on which the character is so tenuously balanced.

Bender does justice to the show's signature piece 'The Impossible Dream' and also masters 'Dulcinea,' the song by which Quixote's imagination transforms kitchen slut Aldonza into a virginal lady.

Mary Chesnut Hicks enters the action with exciting high notes and a defensive swagger, hammering out the role of Aldonza like a woman shaped by hard knocks. She doesn't take it to the level of animal snarl, but we get the point that her emotional armor has a chink in it that Quixote has pierced.

There are excellent voices in the supporting roles. Scott Moura is delightful as Quixote's servant Sancho. John Hunt is the amoral governor of the dungeon, Lorna Mount is the housekeeper, Megan Mount is the niece and Julius Ahn is the grasping potential in-law. Gordon Ing is the Padre and Andrew Valentine is the Barber.

To top off the vocal feast, Christopher Howard and Marvin Miyoshi appear as a pair of charming horses.

Directors Mount and Doo get wonderful ensemble work from this cast and orchestra, and Tom Giza designs a chillingly creaky drawbridge.

You have only two more weekends to see it for yourself.



Thursday, November 20, 2003

Dark Quixote musical
lights up Army stage 'Man of La Mancha'

Review by John Berger

Mary Chesnut soars triumphant in Army Community Theatre's current revival of 'Man of La Mancha,' but Bryan Bender gives a good account of himself in the title role as well. Add a finely nuanced performance by Scott Moura as Sancho Panza, and memorable performances by Julius Dae-Sung Ahn (Dr. Carrasco) and John Hunt (Governor/Innkeeper), and ACT's 'La Mancha' entertains despite the darkness of the story and the enigmatic ending.

The story is set in a dark period of European history. Miguel de Cervantes and his loyal servant have been imprisoned for holding the Catholic Church to the same standards as the lay population in 17th-century Spain.

To ransom his possessions from the other prisoners, he persuades their leader, the self-styled Governor of the prison, to have the prisoners join him in acting out the story of Alonso Quijana and his manservant, Sancho Panza.

Quijana, a country gentleman of means, has found the cruelty and pragmatism of the world around him so distressing that he has lost touch with reality and believes he is a noble knight, Don Quixote of La Mancha, defender of the oppressed and righter of wrongs.

The Governor agrees that Cervantes' 'defense' may take the form of a play and that he and the other inmates will participate in acting out the adventures of Don Quixote.

Quijana/Quixote sets out on "the great highway to glory" -- which Sancho Panza notes looks remarkably like a rural byway leading to a town where chickens are cheap.

Quixote "jousts" with a windmill that he 'sees' as an eight-armed giant, enters a small roadside inn under the impression that it is a great castle and worships a kitchen maid as a 'sweet lady and fair virgin' -- this last delusion the source of much amusement to the loutish mule-drivers and whore-hoppers who enjoy her favors on a sex-for-hire basis.

The woman, Aldonza, is skeptical of Quixote's proclamations of respectful love and desire to worship even 'the nethermost hem of her garments,' but is eventually won over to Quixote's quest -- with horrifying results.

Director John Mount approaches 'La Mancha' with a different perspective than Cecilia Fordham employed as director of ACT's 1992 production.

Tom Giza created a sharply raked set in 1992 but provides a more conventional multilevel set this time.

Dennis Proulx, star of the 1992 show, had the gaunt and slightly haunted look expected of an elderly Don Quixote, and combined courtly manners with hints of physical frailty.

Bender's is a much younger and more robust Don Quixote, yet he succeeds in bringing the right strength and delivery to his two big anthems, 'Man of La Mancha' and 'The Impossible Dream,' and ample athletic ability to the battle scenes.

The comic balance found in the relationship between Quixote and Sancho Panza also feels lighter this time around. Moura is an excellent comic sidekick and makes his two big numbers, 'I Really Like Him' and 'A Little Gossip,' musical highlights as well.

Chesnut is impressive throughout. If she was pre-cast on the strength of her voice and name, well, she delivers on both counts. Chesnut quickly establishes herself as an actor as well, and is a commanding figure even when sharing the spotlight with Bender or Hunt. Her three big vocal numbers -- 'It's All the Same,' 'What Does He Want of Me?' and 'Aldonza' -- are delivered with intensity and finesse.

ACT has sanitized the scene in which the muleteers beat and then rape Aldonza for siding with Quixote against them, but Katherine L. Jones (choreography) succeeds in retaining an appropriate sense of horror and ugly brutal abuse. Chesnut and the muleteers -- lead by her real-life husband, Kalani Hicks, as Pedro -- make the scene a horrible experience even in bowdlerized form. Hunt adds warmth and gentle humor as the Innkeeper who goes out of his way to accommodate his mentally ill guest.

Megan Mount (Antonia) and Lorna Mount (Quijana's housekeeper) provide humor of a darker type in a beautifully delivered rendition of the confessional, 'I'm Only Thinking of Him.' The beauty of their voices is a perfect counterpoint to the undercurrents of greed that percolate through the lyrics.

Julius Dae-Sung Ahn exudes an acidic venom as the prisoner who is 'prosecuting' Cervantes, but appears much more reasonable and humane as Dr. Carrasco, who seems to have sincere concerns about what can happen to a wealthy mentally ill man allowed to wander the countryside carrying weapons.

Aldonza's fate shows that he has good cause to be worried about the consequences of Don Quixote's quest.