<P> Man of La Mancha is a 1964 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 and his 17th - 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 work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes ' life or of Don Quixote . Wasserman complained repeatedly about taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote . </P>
<P> Man of La Mancha is a 1964 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 and his 17th - 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 work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes ' life or of Don Quixote . Wasserman complained repeatedly about taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote . </P>
who wrote the music for man of la mancha
who wrote the music for man of la mancha
lyrics by Joe Darion , and music by Mitch Leigh
lyrics by Joe Darion , and music by Mitch Leigh