Sat­ur­day April 16th at 2pm Pacific/SLT, 10pm in the UK, sees the pre­miere of a new orig­i­nal series on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio: “The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal.” This month­ly pro­gram explores musi­cal the­atre: the shows, his­to­ry, and lore pre­sent­ed live on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio from the VCRa­dio The­ater on Chest­nut Hills, in Sec­ond Life. Every month, your host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er spot­lights a dif­fer­ent show or cre­ative per­son­al­i­ty from the musi­cal the­atre canon. The first episode, Tilt­ing At Wind­mills, high­lights Man of La Man­cha, with music from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent pro­duc­tions. You can tune into the show on the air or join the audi­ence in the VCRa­dio The­ater. Here’s a taste of what’s to come…

Man of La Man­cha pre­miered in 1965 with music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Dar­i­on. It is adapt­ed from Dale Wasser­man’s non-musi­cal 1959 tele­play I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by both Miguel de Cer­vantes life, and his 17th-cen­tu­ry nov­el Don Quixote — con­sid­ered by many to be among the great­est nov­els of all time. 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 orig­i­nal 1965 Broad­way pro­duc­tion ran for 2,328 per­for­mances and won five Tony Awards, includ­ing Best Musi­cal. The musi­cal has been revived four times on Broad­way, becom­ing one of the most endur­ing works of the musi­cal the­atre canon. The cli­mac­tic song, “The Impos­si­ble Dream”, has become a standard.

Join us on the third Sat­ur­day of the month. And don’t for­get to sup­port live the­ater and live stage per­for­mances in your area of the world, or wher­ev­er you may roam. Here’s your limo to the VC Radio The­ater  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chestnut%20Hills/124/89/3804.

Here are links to some notable record­ings of “The Impos­si­ble Dream” that are avail­able on You Tube:

Mary Eliz­a­beth Mas­tran­to­nio & Bri­an Stokes Mitchell – The Impos­si­ble Dream – from the 2003 Tony Awards  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzm0SJc6GZs

Richard Kiley – The Impos­si­ble Dream – from the 1972 Tony Awards with a clip from 1966  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHVGOp5Usv4

Jim Neigh­bors from “Gomer Pyle USMC” – The Impos­si­ble Dream  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJlgio-UOng