WEEKEND REVIEWS : Theater : Set Brings ‘La Mancha’ to Life in Long Beach

Long Beach Civic Light Opera sometimes appears artistically cursed by the size of its 3,000-seat home venue, the Terrace Theater. Some shows are just too intimate for this hall, and you’d think “Man of La Mancha” would be one of them.

It’s set in an old-fashioned dungeon--a site usually thought of as cramped--and only through the power of storytelling and the exercise of imagination are we allowed to escape.

But the company’s new producing artistic director, Luke Yankee, in his directing debut at Long Beach, has successfully challenged the windmill, to borrow an analogy from the play itself.

He imported John B. Wilson’s huge, labyrinthine dungeon set, a convincing chamber of horrors created for San Jose Civic Light Opera. And Yankee made the most of it by keeping it visible as the audience enters, letting us observe some of the poor wretches who are confined there as they gnash their teeth over their fate. Don’t miss the character identified in the program as “Cage Boy” (Robert Biehn), whose entire role appears to consist of standing in a little cage halfway up one of the dungeon’s walls.

Although it’s doubtful that those in the balcony seats will be able to make out all the details amid the murky light, those who are up closer should arrive a few minutes early to soak up some of this atmosphere. If you can’t actually be there among the prisoners (an idea advocated by the show’s playwright, Dale Wasserman), this is the next best thing.

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The rest of the production is a fairly conventional but smoothly professional show.

John McCook moves between his dual roles of Cervantes and Quixote with precision, although you can’t always say the same about the pitch of his otherwise clear and lustrous voice as it moves from note to note.

Jana Robbins masterfully scales both the dark, bitter fury of Aldonza and the more dulcet tones of Dulcinea. But whatever possessed the costumers to give Aldonza a pair of high-heeled leather boots?

Walter Winston O’Neil, who recently created the role of a devilish little scoundrel in Wasserman’s “Western Star” in Redondo Beach, registers just as strongly as a classic Wasserman good guy, Sancho Panza (though his costume clearly needed padding). Calvin Remsberg makes the Padre sound glorious.

Yankee eliminated the kitschy, politically incorrect “Moorish Dance”--which is just as well, especially considering that he also added an intermission to what was intended to be a show without a break. The pit band, led by N. Thomas Pedersen in his LBCLO debut, plays with authority but never becomes overbearing.

“Man of La Mancha,” Terrace Theatre, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, Wednesdays-Saturdays and July 25, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2 p.m.; July 23, 7 p.m. Ends July 30. $15-$45. (213) 365-3500. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.

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John McCook: Cervantes/Quixote Jana Robbins: Aldonza/Dulcinea Walter Winston O’Neil: Manservant/Sancho Panza Larry Daggett: Duke/Dr. Carrasco Darrell Sandeen: Governor/Innkeeper Calvin Remsberg: Padre Kathryn Fairmont: Antonia Carol Kline: Housekeeper Sam Zeller: Pedro Ira Denmark: Barber Sean Smith, Michael Guarnera, Randy Hills, J. Steven Campanelli, P.M. Howard, Grant Rosen: Other Muleteers Peisha McPhee: Maria Steven Benson: Captain Jennifer Shelton: Fermina A Long Beach Civic Light Opera production. Music by Mitch Leigh. Lyrics by Joe Darion. Book by Dale Wasserman. Directed by Luke Yankee. Musical director N. Thomas Pedersen. Choreographed by Timothy Smith. Sets by John B. Wilson. Lights by D Martyn Bookwalter. Sound by Jon Gottlieb and Philip G. Allen. Costumes by Garland Riddle and Cathleen Edwards. Makeup/hair by Elena Breckenridge. Props by Deborah J. Dennis. Production stage manager: Susan Slagle.