San Diego Magazine / December 2004 / Des McAnuff

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Des McAnuff

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DES MCANUFF has served La Jolla Playhouse for 15 years. He helped launch the theater’s rebirth in 1983 and stayed until 1994, when he left to explore other pastures, including Hollywood and a turn as director of four motion pictures. Under his leadership, the Playhouse has won more than 300 theater awards, among them the 1993 Tony as America’s Outstanding Regional Theater. McAnuff, 52, has won two Tonys himself, as a director and writer. This month, he’s in New York, directing Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays on Broadway. His most recent Playhouse project, Jersey Boys, is expected to open on Broadway next summer.

Dialogue TOM BLAIR: So, have you made room on the mantel for another Tony in 2005?

DES MCANUFF: Well, that would be awfully nice. I’m too superstitious to think that way, but we’ll see. Right now, I’m just so incredibly caught up in the work that it’s hard to think a day in advance.

TB: Maybe I should say two Tonys. The show you launched at the Playhouse last April with Billy Crystal, 700 Sundays, opens December 5 on Broadway. What’s it like working with Billy?

DM: He’s a terrific collaborator. He has a strong sense of himself and what he wants. But he’s also a great listener. And he’s tremendously generous. In fact, the poster for the play, the one-sheet, came through one day during rehearsals, and with all his producing responsibilities, as well as performing and writing, he was offering to sign a couple of posters for me for his supporters in La Jolla. He truly is a mensch. And of course, breathtakingly funny.

TB: Does that come through when you’re doing something as serious as staging a Broadway show?

DM: All the time. I walked into a rehearsal back during the spring, wearing shorts. I mean, we were in California. And he just stared at my legs and, very coolly, said, “Des, I thought we agreed: No shorts.”

TB: And then there’s Jersey Boys, the absolutely delightful musical based on the lives of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons that premiered in October at the Playhouse. How difficult is it to cast and stage a musical biography of a legendary pop group when you’re being watched along the way by the originals?

DM: It’s just such a wild tale that, by and large, it’s been an advantage, because we’ve had direct access to the characters. So 90 percent of what’s in the show is based on anecdotes or stories we’ve been told. They’ve actually been more courageous than I would be about letting somebody tell my life story.

TB: With two terrific musicals coming out of San Diego theater to Broadway next year—Jersey Boys and the Old Globe’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels —there’s a real possibility you’ll be vying for a best-director Tony with your crosstown colleague Jack O’Brien.

DM: That would be delightful; it would be a fantastic thing for San Diego. The only disappointment would be if neither of us won. I’m thrilled for Jack’s success; he’s always been very generous with me. He has a great heart. We’re very different directors, and even though we both work in the same area, there’s plenty of room for success. The great thing about competing with a friend for a Tony Award is that they don’t come with cash—like the Nobel or Pulitzer.

TB: In addition to the Playhouse and Globe, there are at least half a dozen other theaters here that enjoy solid reputations for excellence. Why do you think San Diego is able to support so many professional companies?

DM: The Globe and Playhouse, in particular, expanded at a great time —in the late ’70s. In the early ’90s, we’d both kind of hit our stride. The Globe went fully Equity [union shop] about that time, when the national theater scene was kind of looking to be led. And Craig Noel and Gregory Peck were the real pioneers who made that happen. I walked into an environment where people expected to support the theater. A lot of it has to do with the appetite in the audiences. People think of San Diego as a theater town. They expect to buy tickets; they expect to become members and make donations.

TB: Your first tenure with the Playhouse began with its rebirth in 1983 and lasted 11 seasons. You rejoined the theater in 2001, and it’s been a happy reunion for both, I think. What drew you back?

DM: At that time, it was the need of the institution. I came back because Michael Grief had just left. It was clear he was not willing to come back. His successor, Ann Hamburger, left suddenly. So somebody needed to step in. There wasn’t really time to get the search finished.

TB: You’ve had some experience up the road in Hollywood—two liveaction films, two animated. All four artistic successes, if not box-office blockbusters. Do you feel motion pictures are behind you? On hold? Or is something new in the works?

DM: I’d love to do another one. I have a couple of projects in the very early stages. But the theater really comes first right now. And maybe there’s a point in the future where that could happen. I’d sure love to make another movie. It’s very seductive.

TB: So you haven’t had it with Hollywood. DM: No, but you know, I think it’s fun to do movies that aren’t directly connected with Hollywood. They’re just getting harder and harder to find. I don’t have time to miss the movies, but I really enjoyed it. And I hope I’ll get another opportunity and have time in the schedule to find a way to do it.

TB: Maybe Jersey Boys, the Movie? DM: I hope so; I think it would make a great movie.

TB: What a thrill it was to be sitting there on opening night for Jersey Boys —and half the time standing there, it seemed—and just feel the huge ovations after every single musical number.

DM: It’s the first time I can ever remember having audiences stand up in the middle of the act. And not just one act, but both acts. If you’d told me that was going to happen, I’d have bet money against it.