MAN OF LA MANCHA Composer Launches Jackson Twenty-One 'Utopia' Campaign

Composer Mitch Leigh has founded Jackson Twenty-One, which he describes as a living community "designed for really nice people who love the sports and love the arts."

"I think if you see that no one is going to laugh at you for it, I think the concept of living nicely will be infectious," Leigh tells the New York Times. Though some have wondered if the ad (below) was a hoax, Leigh insists that it's for real: "This is my final dream before I take the last cab," he says.

Leigh is likely best known for composing MAN OF LA MANCHA, which also features a book by Dale Wasserman and lyrics by Joe Darion. 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.

It tells the story of the "mad" knight, Don Quixote, as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical has been revived four times on Broadway (most recently in 2002), becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.