In my current state of Jersey Boys euphoria, I happened upon this article from The New York Times. Wow, Des McAnuff sounds like an extremely cool guy -- I'd love to meet him!

And he's from Toronto!

A Tiny Theater in San Diego and Its Director Supply a Steady Flow to Broadway

By HEATHCLIFF ROTHMAN
Published: November 16, 2005

SAN DIEGO -- When Tommy Devito in "Jersey Boys," talks about driving to a landfill next to a dump to cheer for a team from New York, there is usually knowing laughter from much of the audience. New Jerseyans have been filling Broadway seats to see this show about their homegrown sons, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, cheering at the Turnpike jokes and nodding at the familiar names of towns.

So they might be surprised that this musical was not born in driving distance of Jersey City, but rather on the West Coast, in sunny La Jolla, which is better known for its rich writers than for local hoods. But this coastal town, which the co-writer of "Jersey Boys" Marshall Brickman calls "heaven with pelicans," has been a pipeline to Broadway for a long time.

La Jolla Playhouse, a tiny nonprofit theater now housed on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, has produced revivals of "The Who's Tommy," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Big River," and more recently, Tony winners like Billy Crystal's "700 Sundays," "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "I Am My Own Wife" (which also won a Pulitzer).

Behind the waves of Broadway transplants is Des McAnuff, who since 2000 has been serving his second stint as artistic director. "He's like the mayor of La Jollaville, like La Jolla R.F.D.," Mr. Crystal said by phone from Toronto, where he was performing "700 Sundays." "If they could build a little house right at the theater, Des would live there."

Toronto is where Mr. McAnuff is from, but he moved to New York in the mid-1970's and quickly joined the inner circle of the emerging progressive theater scene, working with Joseph Papp and becoming a co-founder of Dodger Theatricals (with the producers Michael David, Rocco Landesman,Ed Strong and Sherman Warner). Dodger is producing "Jersey Boys."

In 1983 Mr. McAnuff moved west to become artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse. After a string of hits -- and some failures -- he left in 1994, to branch out into film. He directed Jessica Lange in "Cousin Bette" and was the executive producer of the Marquis de Sade film "Quills," starring Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush. He returned to La Jolla Playhouse five years ago when its artistic director left abruptly to join the Walt Disney Company.

Elizabeth Bennett, a former dramaturge at La Jolla who is now at the Second Stage in New York, said she remembered Mr. McAnuff's midseason return in 2000: He sat "on the deck outside the building, smoking a cigar and purposely introducing himself to every single staff member who walked by." She continued, "It said a lot about the fact that he really wanted people to know that he was approachable, that he was the kind of person that they could stop and talk to."

Employees are not the only ones Mr. McAnuff is expert at schmoozing with. Mr. Brickman was amused to watch Mr. McAnuff work the room at a fund-raiser. "He is really brilliant at it," Mr. Brickman said. "The rich people, the donors, really love him. I watched him with, oh, what's his name, Dr. Seuss - Theodore Geisel's widow. He was just charming her pants off." When it comes to his work onstage, it is Mr. McAnuff's willingness to take risks that often impresses his colleagues. Mr. Brickman mentioned how he approved a full-scale production of "Jersey Boys" without a script: "We only had an outline and structure. He just had faith in the story and music, and had the guts to give us a slot in the schedule."

Mr. McAnuff decided to set the musical up as a biography of the Four Seasons rather than writing a story to fit the widely different hits like "Sherry," "Walk Like a Man," "September 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" and "Big Girls Don't Cry."

"There is no pit orchestra," Rick Elice, a co-writer, said. "The musicians are essentially characters in the show. That was a big idea from Des. And it set a structure within which we were able to write the show."

Mr. McAnuff explained what he was after: "I didn't want people sitting at the breakfast table breaking out into song. They are at the recording studio and nightclub. The band is in one way or another performing their material."

"700 Sundays" came about, Mr. Crystal said, when he was in Seattle doing a benefit, and Mr. McAnuff, a friend, flew up to see him perform his mix of comedy stand-up and personal anecdotes.

Mr. McAnuff was impressed by what he saw. "I told Billy and had told him earlier, 'Come down to La Jolla,'" he said. "Let's develop it into a play."

Mr. Crystal said he was struck by Mr. McAnuff's instincts and his fearlessness. "I did a piece about my relationship with Muhammad Ali," he said. "The audience was cheering like crazy at the end of it. And Des says: 'I think we should cut it. I don't feel it's on story like the rest of it.' So here we have the audience cheering, and he's saying to cut 18 minutes out of the first act. And he was totally right. Some people in that situation mighty shy away because its someone's life they're dealing with. But not Des."

His skill is not without rough edges. Mr. David called his sometime partner "maddeningly specific and exacting," adding that "simultaneously he sees the big picture - and can make everyone crazy getting it done."

Mr. McAnuff admited: "I could have been accused of bludgeoning people when I was younger. But if I think I'm right, I'm going to argue for it, that's my job."

Of particular interest to Mr. Cary, though, was Mr. McAnuff's willingness to work with newcomers: "Des and La Jolla are willing to live up to the manifesto of developing genuinely new work from truly emerging writers, at a very advanced level, without any sort of guarantee of financial success, or without being able to rely on the cachet of our names. I think that speaks volumes."

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