McAnuff tries northern exposure
After B'way boom, helmer sets sights on Shakespeare
The helmer of last season's box office hit and top Tony tuner, "Jersey Boys," has barely begun work on his La Jolla Playhouse revival of "The Wiz," but Rialto theater owners keep mentioning it as a show they may want to make room for.
Clearly the director is riding a wave of commercial success, so what's next on his list?
He'll direct Shakespeare. In Canada.
Granted, he'll become one of three artistic directors at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, one of the only major North American classical repertory theaters. But still, the move, set for the fest's 2008 season, looks at first like a step away from the spotlight.
After all, Shakespeare-centric Stratford isn't exactly high-profile among Broadway-centric legiters. Even Antoni Cimolino, exec director of Stratford who hired McAnuff, says, "I feel that our secret's a little bit too well-kept."
For McAnuff, part of the appeal is that it will not require administration duties of any of its artistic directors (who include fellow helmers Marti Maraden and Don Shipley). That will allow more professional flexibility to pursue other projects.
Stratford also reps a homecoming for McAnuff, who was raised in Canada and first attracted attention on the Toronto theater scene in the 1970s.
Though the move may seem like a 180-degree turn to those who only know his New York resume, McAnuff actually does like the classics and has directed works from the canon throughout his career. "I think if you're going to be a great director, and you aspire to do great work, you have to do the great plays," McAnuff says.
According to him, commercial potential is never a criterion when he picks projects: "It makes no sense to me to think that way. They don't all land."
That may be true -- take "Dracula," his ill-fated 2004 Broadway outing -- but a good many of them do. Besides "Jersey Boys," successes include the two that won him Tonys for direction, "The Who's Tommy" (1993) and "Big River" (1985), along with Billy Crystal's hit autobio "700 Sundays" (2004) and the revival of "How to Success in Business Without Really Trying" (1995).
Most of the above began life at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego during McAnuff's two tenures as a.d. there, from 1983-1994 and from 2001 until now. (He left in 1994 to pursue other opportunities, but was wooed back when a new a.d. unexpectedly jumped ship.)
On the list of other New York hits that began in La Jolla are "I Am My Own Wife" (2004) and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (2002).
It's that track record for bringing national attention to a regional theater that has Cimolino, who becomes general director of Stratford in 2008, hoping that McAnuff will bring a bit of that spotlight with him up north. "His work with La Jolla really put that theater on the map," Cimolino says.
And in a sense, Stratford helped put McAnuff on the map. In the late 1970s, Stratford's John Hirsch recommended McAnuff for his first New York gig, a 1977 production of "The Crazy Locomotive" at Chelsea Theater Center.
At CTC he met Michael David, and the two were among a group of creatives and producers who formed Dodger Theaters, the loose partnership that, most recently, produced "Jersey Boys."
McAnuff's contract with La Jolla is up in 2007, although he'll remain affiliated with the company as director emeritus. In 2008, he and his co-artistic directors will begin programming the approximately 15 shows that make up the fest, which usually runs from April through November. Each also will direct some offerings.
From the point of view of his eclectic CV, Stratford is just another unexpected step in what McAnuff calls a "confused career." Along with his upcoming switch from one regional theater to another, his slate includes:
- The upcoming touring production and London incarnation of "Jersey Boys";
- "The Farnsworth Invention," the long-awaited return to legit for scribe Aaron Sorkin, which McAnuff will develop at La Jolla in the Page to Stage program in 2007, a workshop series established during McAnuff's second stint at the theater;
- "Alice," a new tuner based on "Alice in Wonderland," with music by composer Michael Friedman ("The Civilians") and playwright Annie Weisman ("Be Aggressive");
- "Zhivago," the musical that recently preemed at the Playhouse and looks likely, according to McAnuff, to be moving toward a "next step";
- And another new musical in development with indie rockers the Flaming Lips, based on their album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."
He is also a musician (he plays guitar, often with the band from "Jersey Boys"), a composer (he wrote the score to an opera version of Michael Ondaatje's "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid") and a scribe (he's developing a screenplay, a Pygmalion tale set in the fashion industry called "Perfect Light").
He's also directed a couple of pics, "Cousin Bette" (1998) and "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" (2000), and he'd like to do it again -- perhaps with a "Jersey Boys" pic.
Legiters think it's the many hats he wears that help make him an in-demand shepherd for musicals.
"He knows how to solve problems because he's a writer and a director," says Shirley Fishman, associate a.d. at the Playhouse.
"Des brings a unique group of qualities to this particular job, and has had the privilege to practice them a lot," says longtime producing partner David.
The Dodgers have a hand in "The Wiz," but it's too soon to say whether the revival -- which stars David Alan Grier as the title character, but recently lost some star power when Wayne Brady dropped out -- will indeed make it to Gotham.
"We have a rule at the Playhouse: Don't mention the B word," McAnuff says. "I've had some popular successes, but I don't think they define me as a director."
And whatever comes next, he'd prefer not to be pigeonholed.
"It's sort of a dilettante's paradise, the theater," he adds. "It's OK to do more than one thing."
