Good things come in small packages

Massive 'La Mancha' shrinks beautifully onto tiny North Coast Rep stage

By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC

March 8, 2001

DATEBOOK
"Man of La Mancha"
8 p.m. Thursdays- Saturdays; 2 and
7 p.m. Sundays. Through April 22
North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987-D Lomas Santa Fe Drive,
Solana Beach
$25-$27
(858) 481-1055 or (888) 776-6278

In the two decades since body mikes and headsets came into vogue, musicals have invited synthetic performance -- and fat grosses in big, heavily wired theaters.

Any old celebrity -- Rosie O'Donnell guesting in Broadway's "The Seussical," Marilu Henner touring in the recent "Annie Get Your Gun" -- can step on stage and rely on electronic enhancements to project, or even alter a weak or wavering voice.

Imagine the joy, then, of hearing Sean Murray's warm, supple tenor scale the heights of "The Impossible Dream," or Tom Viveiros' robust, dynamically varied singing lead a chorus of male prisoners, all of these voices assured, natural and just a few feet away.

"Man of La Mancha" opened last Saturday with North Coast Rep artistic director Murray playing so many roles onstage and off you needed a score card to keep up.

The 1965 Dale Wasserman hit about the mad idealist Don Quixote and his creator Miguel de Cervantes actually benefited from NCR's intimate space in a Solana Beach shopping mall.

Crack local pianist G. Scott Lacy arranged the powerful Mitch Leigh score for acoustic guitar, keyboards and drums, weaving the music quietly in-and-out of the action, itself fluidly and meticulously co-directed by Murray and Moonlight Amphitheatre's Kathy Brombacher.

Designer Marty Burnett found ingenious solutions to staging a Broadway-size show in a shoebox space. He visualized the jail cell in which Cervantes acts out the Don's story, for instance, as a tawdry plank-wooded and canvas-curtained environment through which patrons must walk to get to their seats.

And as the comic relief of the Don's corpulent sidekick Sancho, NCR staffer John Guth has found the role of his career.

Before he took over as NCR's artistic director three years ago, Murray was known here as a versatile actor, though most remembered in eccentric parts -- the emcee in "Cabaret" and the garter-belted Dr. Frank N. Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show."

On Saturday, Murray stepped lightly into the Cervantes-Don Quixote role originated by Richard Kiley, and wrapping the tunes and the delusions around his shrewd and ironic sensibility, created a grounded center for NCR's first foray into big-time musical theater.

As Aldonza, Sandy Campbell showed all the vocal resources the part requires. She was vulnerable in a smartly staged scene of sexual abuse, a trait that segued into the whore's later change-of-heart.

Also impressive were David Radford as the pretentious Dr. Carrasco, Dagmar K. Fields as the innkeeper's wife, and Ralph Johnson as the padre who teams with Fields and Carrasco for the delightfully sour "I'm Only Thinking of Him."

Spirited and subtle, NCR's "Man of La Mancha," like its "Arcadia," shows the good things that can come when inspired local performers move to the top of their form.

Book: Dale Wasserman. Music: Mitch Leigh. Lyrics: Joe Darion. Co-directors: Kathy Brombacher and Sean Murray. Musical direction: G. Scott Lacy. Choreography: Don Ward. Set: Marty Burnett. Costumes: Shelly Williams. Sound: Peter Hashagen. Lighting: Karin Filijan. Featured cast: Sandy Campbell, Jim Chovick, Dagmar K. Fields, John Guth, Brian Imoto, Ralph Johnson, Sean Murray, David Radford, Tom Viveiros, Angelo D'Agostino-Wilimek, Nasli J. Heeramaneck, Carlos Martin, Joy Nicole Yandell.

Anne Marie Welsh can be reached by phone, (619) 293-1265; fax, (619) 293-2436; mail, P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191; and e-mail, anne-marie.welsh@uniontrib.com.