Michael Patrick Smith, known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English actor, comedian, and singer.
Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. 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 novel 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 Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.
Anthony Warlow is an Australian musical theatre performer, noted for his character acting and considerable vocal range. He is a classically trained lyric baritone and made his debut with the Australian Opera in 1980.
Richard Paul Kiley was an American stage, film and television actor and singer. He is best known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kiley created the role of Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and was the first to sing and record "The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph in the original Broadway cast and, as such, was one of the quartet who sang "And This Is My Beloved". Additionally, he won four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards during his 50-year career and his "sonorous baritone" was also featured in the narration of a number of documentaries and other films. At the time of his death, Kiley was described as "one of theater's most distinguished and versatile actors" and as "an indispensable actor, the kind of performer who could be called on to play kings and commoners and a diversity of characters in between."
George Hearn is an American actor and bass-baritone singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.
Hugh Panaro is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway stage musicals, most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera being in over 2,000 performances in the Broadway production.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. It is based on the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. The character of Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls.
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sunday in the Park with George, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
Laurence Guittard is an American actor and singer, mostly appearing on the Broadway stage. He made his Broadway debut in Baker Street in 1965. Notable appearances include Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, Curly in the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, and as Don Quixote in several productions of Man of La Mancha.
Howard McGillin is an American actor. He is known for originating the role of John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985) and for portraying the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera from 1999 to 2009 on Broadway.
Mark Jacoby is an American musical theatre performer who has had leading roles on Broadway in Show Boat, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweet Charity and Ragtime, among others. He has also performed widely in national tours, regional theatre and Off-Broadway.
Dale Wasserman was an American playwright, perhaps best known for his book for Man of La Mancha.
I, Don Quixote is a non-musical play written for television and directed by Karl Genus. It was broadcast in season 3 of the CBS anthology series DuPont Show of the Month on the evening of November 9, 1959. Written by Dale Wasserman, the play was converted by him ca. 1964 into the libretto for the stage musical Man of La Mancha, with songs by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion. After a tryout at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, Man of La Mancha opened in New York on November 22, 1965, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre.
Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The musical was suggested by the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, but more directly based on Wasserman's 1959 non-musical television play I, Don Quixote, which combines a semi-fictional episode from the life of Cervantes with scenes from his novel.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway, in the West End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in London's West End.
Teatro, Italian for "theatre", is a vocal group signed to the Sony BMG music label. The members of Teatro are Jeremiah James, Andrew Alexander, Simon Bailey and Stephen Rahman-Hughes.
David Thaxton is a Welsh singer, actor and musical theatre and opera performer. He starred in the Donmar Warehouse's Passion, for which he won the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Timothy Nolen was an American actor and baritone who had an active career in operas, musicals, concerts, plays, and on television for over four decades. He was the second actor to play the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway replacing Michael Crawford in October 1988.
William Paul Michals is an American stage actor and baritone singer. He has appeared as Emile de Becque in Rogers and Hammerstein’s SOUTH PACIFIC at Lincoln Center,. He made his Broadway debut as “The Beast” in Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and later returned to play Gaston in the same production. His career continued with roles as Javert in LES MISÉRABLES, Billy Flynn in CHICAGO, Don Quixote in MAN OF LA MANCHA, Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN, the title role in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, and recently appeared as Captain Hook in Leonard Bernstein's PETER PAN. He has received the Anselmo Award, he also earned recognition by Chicago’s “Jeff” and the National STAR awards for his portrayal of Chauvelin in a national tour of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. He has played Captain von Trapp in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and Billy Flynn in Kander & Ebb’s CHICAGO.
Kevin Gray was an American actor who worked primarily in musical theater.
