A Noise Within's Man of La Mancha is easily the finest production of the
Wasserman/Leigh/Darion classic I've ever seen. MOLM can be a bit of a bore
as it was at Glendale Center Theater a few years ago. The Rubicon in
Ventura mounted a fine near Broadway scale production just 6 months ago.
But leave it to "Glendale's Classical Theater Company" to bring us the most
superbly ACTED (and staged) MOLM ever (even without choreographed
dance numbers). Geoff Elliott (concurrently stealing scenes in ANW's
production of Loot) is absolute brilliance as Cervantes/Don Quixote. Alan
Blumenfeld is funny and touching as Elliot's sidekick, and Nadia Ahern wins
hearts as a scrappy and ultimately transformed Aldonza.

The supporting cast (especially Steve Weingartner as the inkeeper) is
uniformly superb. Musical director and pianist (and local treasure) David O
has reorchestrated a number of the songs to fit the production's piano and
guitar (by Keven Tiernan) accompaniment and the new rhythms (such as I
Really Like Him's bossa nova feeling) bring fresh life to the score. Melissa
Fiociello's set design is deceptively simple, until Ken Booth's astounding
lighting design and movable set pieces combine to make this a visually
spectacular production.

Greatest credit must go to director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott's vision, superbly
realized. This is one great director, whose imaginative ideas come vividly to
life in a production that truly must be seen, even by those like myself who'd
thought that MOLM had become a bit of a tired chestnut. It's not. Head
over to A Noise Within to see why!
MAY 2007, A NOISE WITHIN, GLENDALE.

--Steven Stanley