R.I.P. Dale Wasserman

[Big Magilla]

The multi-faceted playwright Dale Wasserman, best known for "Man of La Mancha" and the stage version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has died of heart failure in Arizona. He was 94.

Wasserman, the highly reclusive recipient of many awards and honorary degrees including Tony, New York Drama Critics Circle and Emmy recognition, wrote nearly 80 plays, all of which fill nine boxes in the Billy Rose Collection at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. He also penned magazine articles and a book, "The Impossible Musical."

Wasserman's most sympathetic characters were usually outcasts in one way or another, women as well as men. The scribe felt himself to be "not a member of the club" and was empathetic with those outside the mainstream.

Several of Wasserman's teleplays were rewritten for the stage including "I, Don Quixote," which became "Man of La Mancha" and "The Stranger," which became "Boy on Blacktop Road."

Wasserman married his "beloved friend," Martha Nelly Garza in 1984. His previous marriage, to actress Ramsay Ames, ended in divorce.

George C. White, founder of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Conn., said this about Dale Wasserman as reported in the Perspective section of The Day: "He who attempts the impractical is capable of achieving the impossible." "This quote was given me by my mentor, playwright Dale Wasserman when I was struggling to launch the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. This guided Dale's life as a theatrical maverick innovator. ... . I never cease to be grateful to Dale."