An Impossibly Good "Man of La Mancha" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ 1/2

Yes, that's Bill English, the co-founder of San Francisco Playhouse, who is usually the affable, soft-spoken guy who comes out before the curtain goes up at all Playhouse performances to welcome the audience and ask people to please buy season subscriptions. Normally, he leaves his armor and conquistador's helmet at home, but after last night's masterful Opening Night performance as Don Quijote de la Mancha, the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, Bill may be sleeping in that helmet from now on and brushing his teeth with his sword.

Bill English is not Richard Kiley (who starred in the original 1965 Broadway production) and he is not Robert Goulet (who popularized the show's big hit 'The Impossible Dream'), and for this we thank you, Jesus. English, and the rest of the streetwise cast, is perfect for a Man of La Mancha updated to the year 2064. They appear to be in some kind of futuristic prison (with musical instruments), but this is a show with such timeless songs that just about any setting would do.



But you gotta buy into it, as a generation of parents can attest who have been forced to squirm through countless overwrought and over-emoted La Manchas. Director Jon Tracy is wringing fabulous performances from Cathleen Riddley (as Aldonza/Dulcinea) and Louis Parnell (as a kind of Borscht Belt Sancho Panza). But musically, the show is stolen by the lyrical tenor of The Padre (Martin Rojas-Dietrich) whose perfect notes are a counterpoint to the earthiness of most of the other singers, despite Rojas-Dietrich's unnerving resemblance to Dom Deluise as the Priest in The Twelve Chairs.



Let's face it: everybody needs to find his Dulcinea. We live in a world where lies are disguised as truth and truth is derided as an impossible...wait. Did someone say "Impossible Dream?"

Yes, lyricist Joe Darion did. And last night, Bill English made us sit up and listen:

The Impossible Dream
Music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

---

As Smokey Robinson once said, Ooooh, Baby, Baby. The SF Theater Blog Awards "The Man of La Mancha' at San Francisco Playhouse one star for the cast, one star for the direction, one entire star for the band (and the glorious fact that they could have used tapes but used live performers instead - stand UP and shout OLE!) half a star because Sancho Panza sounded like Joey Bishop, half a star for Bill English making us suspend our disbelief and root for the aging mad knight, and another half for Susi Damilano's dress, her garlic bread and because this has been a memorable season for SF Playhouse.

Financially, it's never easy and probably won't get any easier. The good news is: next season there are more dragons to slay.