The men of 'La Mancha'

For Middle Island resident Rick Grossman, playing Sancho Panza, the sidekick of legendary knight errant Don Quixote, in the Hampton Theatre Company’s production of “Man of La Mancha” was never, as the show’s iconic song goes, “an impossible dream.” In fact, the third-generation thespian seemed destined to play the part.

“I have had a long relationship with this piece,” the actor says of the East End theater company’s staging of the show based on Miguel de Cervantes’ epic 16th century novel, the first musical in its 35-year history. Besides appearing as the devoted squire Off-Broadway and on the national tour, Grossman remembers his uncle, Irving Jacobson, a veteran of the Yiddish theater, originating the role on Broadway in 1966. “I got to see him perform many times,” says Grossman, who started his own career as a child actor in his family’s Lower East Side theater company, “and he got to see me do it.”

Grossman’s connection to the production doesn’t end with the familial. He also worked with Edward Brennan, one of the show’s directors, some 25 years ago at Bohemia’s now-defunct Airport Playhouse, then owned by Hampton Theatre Company musical director Amy McGrath and her husband, Bill. Grossman’s tie to McGrath also includes playing Sancho — in his debut as the character — to her Dulcinea (Don Quixote’s girlfriend) with the no-longer extant Sayville Musical Workshop in the 1980s. And Matthew Conlin, who plays the chivalric hero, was a student of McGrath’s when she was the choral teacher at Sayville High School.

Other bonds in the Hampton Theatre Company musical are through the Tony Award-winning show’s enduring message. “It’s about having the confidence to say we can be better,” says Grossman, noting that “Man of La Mancha” — a play within a play whereby Cervantes acts out scenes in his unfinished novel for a group of prisoners awaiting a hearing — takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. “It was a time when trials and investigations were going on. Four-hundred years plus,” he adds, “and not much has really changed.”

To be sure, the musical’s subtext — to never stop dreaming — is a message for the ages. It is also one with broad appeal, as evidenced by the hit show’s numerous foreign-language adaptions, including Bulgarian, Hebrew, Bengali and Japanese. It is this universal allure, along with its sumptuous score, modest-size cast and instrumental accompaniment, that made the show a perfect choice to satisfy patrons’ desire to see a musical at the Quogue theater. “I’ve performed in 'Man of La Mancha' all over the country and audiences’ reactions are always the same,” says Grossman. “They leave feeling renewed and inspired.”

Conlin admits he’s been duly warned. “I’ve been told that there’s likely to be some audience sing-along. If it happens, I’m prepared,” he says. “I just hope they’re in tune.”