The Impossible Musical: The ""Man of La Mancha"" Story

Wasserman first dramatized Don Quixote for early television, and he includes that script in this highly engaging history of the trials, tribulations and rewards behind its beloved and perennial successor, Man of La Mancha. The plainspoken author is often disconcertingly frank about the personalities he encountered in theater, but says little about himself other than to mention the early loss of his parents and his taking to a hobo's life at age 15. Even his wife of 26 years receives only a few lines, though she's shown in one of the book's many photographs, which primarily show actors impersonating Don Quixote. He knew there was a musical in his TV play, and had optioned it to a producer while he worked on numerous television and cinema projects, most notably the Taylor/Burton film Cleopatra and the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Kirk Douglas. When Elizabeth Taylor fell ill, Wasserman, his script and director Rouben Mamoulian were dropped. Douglas, a difficult man, was as""unstoppable as a charging bull."" Dozens of other hands mangled the play. Not until Wasserman reinstated his own script years later did it become a lasting success. As for La Mancha, most playwrights know about options and inactive producers. When the option finally expired, the author took it over himself. His subsequent adventures with lyricists, composers, agents, actors and even theaters (he finally settled for a shed downtown before moving to Broadway) make for laughs as well as engrossing and occasionally eyebrow-lifting reading.