Stirring, After All These Years

It’s here. "Man of La Mancha." This 43-year-old musical within a musical, which is revived almost as frequently as "Grease," is a mystery to me: hokey beyond measure, super theatrical and, in the right hands, appealing.

Which is how Up in One’s production at Rhinebeck’s Performing Arts Center comes off.

Mostly.

Its star, Andy Weintraub, as the poet/actor Cervantes and the knight-in-yearning Don Quixote, can’t sing and shouldn’t try. Sometimes he wanders into Rex Harrison territory, talking the music, and that works pretty well.

But Weintraub is a fellow with intense theatrical instincts, which force him to try hitting the notes.

Not a good idea. He misses.

Still, his diction is perfect, he speaks with authority, moves boldly and is thoroughly absorbed in his role of idealist, bad poet and honest man.

The whole production is teeming with good actors and some of them are fine singers, too, most notably Kecia Craig as Antonia, who steps right into the light with the song "I’m Only Thinking of Him." And Lisa Lynds as Aldonza, the brutish scullery maid/hooker, is thoroughly transformed by the Don’s vision of her as Lady Dulcinea. Lynds is a treat to watch.

And so are Thomas Webb as Sancho Panza, loyally serving the deluded don, and David Foster as the Padre, a role that can slide by with no particular distinction. But not here.

This 16th-century tale of a poet/actor and sometime tax collector, this last occupation "a temporary thing" Cervantes tells his fellows in a Spanish prison, is about a moral man in a nasty world. There is much dishonesty afoot, plundering and abuse of power by both church and state. And the weak and poor are preyed upon — by those in charge and by each other. A bad time.

But Cervantes’ Don has a vision of chivalry, of turning the other cheek, of goodness and decency that rings of a Christ — a notion emphasized by director Laurie Sepe Marder, who has the knight in his dying moments held up by pals, arm out, head lolling. And, what could be more benevolent, more life altering, than dreaming the impossible dream? This surefire notion moves people, history, even politicians.

As for scenery, costumes, sets and lights, well, they all work. The stage is suitably dingy with a creaking gate for keeping prisoners in and a cheerless fire for keeping the inn residents cold. And the stellar moment has to be Don Quixote and Sancho astride some wonderfully lyrical horses, a stirring moment in an entertaining show.