Today in Literature on FaceBook

Man of La Mancha opened in New York City in 1965, running for the next five-and-a-half years and earning many awards and accolades — among them, the rarely bestowed, “A Metaphysical Smasheroo!” (from the Life magazine review). The musical started as a 1959 teleplay by Dale Wasserman; when he decided to rework the teleplay as a musical, he tried to hire the famous poet W. H. Auden to write the lyrics. In his 2003 memoir, The Impossible Musical, Wasserman describes their falling out as a clash of conflicting visions — Wasserman’s more inspiring and audience-friendly, Auden’s truer to the Cervantes original, which ends with the hero disheartened and repentant. The end of their collaboration came when Auden submitted his lyrics for the “Impossible Dream” song that Wasserman had requested:

“Your words are existentialist,” I argued. “They are also fatalistic.”
“They are the proper words for Don Quixote.”
“They are not for Dale Wasserman.”
Still we might have reconciled our differences but for the play’s finale. Here Auden was adamant: Quixote must repudiate his quest and warn others against like folly. I said no, in thunder.
“Wasserman, the man was mad.”
“It’s a madness we happen to need.”
“That is arrant romanticism.”
“I know, but it happens to be my thesis.”