
Man of La Mancha, The Musical vs. Don Quixote, The Novel
I am a huge fan of the musical
Man of La Mancha, which is based not only on
Don Quixote, but also on Cervantes' experience in prison (where he wrote
Don Quixote). I will be interested to see how accurate the portrayal of the musical is in regards to the book and Cervantes' biography.
If anyone else knows the musical, please join me in pointing out differences, omissions, de-emphasis or more emphasis of characters, as well as any biographical information you may be able to provide in order to see how much liberty the musical took with the novel and Cervantes' life.
If you haven't seen the musical, there's a movie version from the 60s starring Peter O'Toole, although they omit a lot of the music and the supporting cast isn't very good. You can also listen to it here for free:
last.fm/music/Original%2520Broadway%252 ... a%20mancha,
and the synopsis/explanation can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_La_Mancha.
Either way, this should be pretty interesting.