Allen Miller, who knows of what he speaks, sets us straight on a few theater facts…
Man of La Mancha was never "Off-Broadway" in the way we usually use the term. It opened in the ANTA Washington Square theater in November 1965 on 4th Street off the Southeast corner of Washington Square, a sort of prefab construction on land leased by NYU.
The show moved uptown in 1968 when NYU started constructing a monolithic red stone library(?). It continued on the "real" Broadway until 1971. I'm sure the 2000+ performances include the run on Washington Square.
In April 1967, our College Bowl team from Ursinus College were given free tickets to a show and picked Man of La Mancha. I think we were a bit confused by the subway ride and walk to this unconventional theater from midtown. I don't think we appreciated Jose Ferrer as Don Quixote as much as we should have. We had been indoctrinated by the sound of Kiley on the cast album. Jose Ferrer's career and celebrity peaked when we were just children.
By 1971, when my wife and I moved to Brooklyn and I worked in the Village, the ANTA theater was gone. Every great and not so great singer had to do "The Impossible Dream" until Man of La Mancha was fit for only squares.
(I, of course, Wikied the factual information to refresh my elderly, well-meaning memory.)
Well, there must be a lot of us squares around. The show keeps being revived and every time I've seen it staged — at least three times so far — the place is pretty packed and the audience seems really happy to have bought tickets. I suspect that if you can cast the right lead, the show is just about bulletproof.
I once heard Robert Morse address a class of wanna-be actors. He was asked for the best advice he could offer to someone auditioning for a musical and his answer went something like this: "Prepare a song that nobody else will be singing that day. If you open your mouth and out comes ‘The Impossible Dream,' you'll be the ninth one that day, probably not the best and none of you Don Quixotes will get the part, even if the part is Don Quixote." Thanks, Allen.