Anthony Warlow Takes on Don Quixote at The Shakespeare

"This is my first time coming to Washington, D.C., and I've fallen in love with it," Anthony Warlow says. "The plethora of theater in this city is extraordinary, and the quality of the productions is just unmatched.... There's something about the true art that is formed here. And I love that side of it."

Director Alan Paul selected Warlow, one of Australia's leading actors, to star in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Man of La Mancha" after seeing him as Daddy Warbucks in the 2012 Broadway revival of "Annie." "I've always said he's like the King Lear of music theater," Warlow says of Don Quixote. "It's one of the toughest roles to convey, but the payoff is extraordinary."

It's actually the second time Warlow has portrayed the musical Quixote. "This is a far more superior telling of the story" than the one he starred in 15 years ago Down Under. "I think sometimes one can try to gild the lily with productions that have been done many, many times. I think what Alan has done very cleverly is take the clich� out of this production, and make it something that really stands up for today's audience."

This production is darker - it has "more gravitas," as Warlow puts it - than other versions of the classic by writers Dale Wasserman and Joe Darion and composer Mitch Leigh. Precisely because it doesn't shy away from intimations of a gang rape, among other injustices, the production is also more uplifting. Warlow compares it to his own bout with cancer when he was 30. "My whole philosophy...was think positively. There will be light at the end of the tunnel," he says.

"The show has a redemption quality about it," he says. "The fact that it's so beautifully staged, I think that story becomes very real to people."

"Man of La Mancha" runs to April 26 at Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org