<Tr> <Th> Basis </Th> <Td> I, Don Quixote (teleplay) by Dale Wasserman and Don Quixote (novel) by Miguel de Cervantes </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Productions </Th> <Td> 1964 Goodspeed Opera House 1965 Broadway 1968 West End 1972 Broadway 1972 Film 1977 Broadway 1992 Broadway 2002 Broadway International productions </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Awards </Th> <Td> Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Score </Td> </Tr> <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>

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