STAGE TUBE: On This Day 12/5- MAN OF LA MANCHA

Welcome to BWW's ON THIS DAY Series celebrating theatrical birthdays, openings and special events that took place on this day in theatre history!

Today in 2002, the fourth Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), where it ran for 304 performances. Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. 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, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.

In celebration of this day, we bring you 'The Impossible Dream' as performed at the 2003 Tony Awards. Click below to check it out!