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Man of La Mancha and Cry For Us All are two of my favorite musical scores. I wish more of his shows had been made available outside of taped-in-the-theater sources. R.I.P.
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I had the joy of seeing the original production of "Man of La Mancha" with Richard Kiley and Joan Diener, and it was simply amazing. Decades later I would fall in love with Linda Eder's unusual but gorgeous version of "Man of La Mancha" (sometimes referred to as "I, Don Quixote"), which she often closed her shows with back in the 1990s. Leigh was a customer of ours at the Beverly Hills offices of Smith Barney, and his cousin was his stockbroker. The cousin knew how much I loved the show "Man of La Mancha" and one day in 1993 brought him by my office and introduced us. I asked him if he had ever heard Linda Eder's version of his song and he said that he hadn't. "Oh, you must!," I insisted, but never knew if he did. I'm playing Eder's thrilling version of it right now (it's on her album "It's Time"), and that music and that show will never die.
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They dimmed the lights on Broadway tonight to pay tribute to him, a well-deserved honor.
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Man of La Mancha and Cry For Us All are two of my favorite musical scores. I wish more of his shows had been made available outside of taped-in-the-theater sources. R.I.P. Was lucky enough to see the 8th performance of the original cast of MAN OF LA MANCHA, at the Anta Washington Square Theatre, over Thanksgiving weekend, 1965. Great experience. Saw CRY FOR US ALL twice, when it was trying out in Boston, under the title, WHO TO LOVE. The first time, Joan Diener was out sick, and her understudy, Willi Burke, took the main role. She was wonderful, and the show was amazing, a real musical tragedy, which is what it's supposed to be. Then, loving it so much, I saw it again, this time with Diener, and it was terrible, with Diener playing her show-biz best, which is the opposite of the shy, retiring character she was supposed to play. And the show was just awful, with schlocky added numbers, like "How Are Ya Since?" and "Red, White, Cornucopian Land," though it still had Robert Weede, and his moving, "Aggie, Oh Aggie," which was wonderful. I even discussed all this with William Alfred, whom I came into contact with while acting in various shows at Harvard, elucidating all the inept changes, but he didn't seem very interested. I was glad CRY FOR US ALL got a recording, but it's certainly not complete. There is at least another half hour worth of songs, if not more, that are not included, including a lovely lament, called, "Macula Non Est In Te," sung by the wife, looking back on her youth.
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