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Interviews
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Imagination and Variety Philip Fisher talks to Des McAnuff, director of Jersey Boys Des McAnuff certainly leads a busy life. British Theatre Guide caught up with him at a central London hotel during a flying visit to keep an eye on rehearsals of Jersey Boys, the New York smash hit that is opening at the Prince Edward Theatre in mid-March. His name may not immediately mean too much to British audiences but amongst much the work, he directed both The Who's Tommy and more recently I Am My Own Wife in the West End and on Broadway. Jersey Boys is one of four big projects that the director has on the go at the moment but he seems to thrive on activity and would undoubtedly have his life no other way. When he was given the opportunity to direct Jersey Boys, a musical biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, he was very enthusiastic. To start with however, "we did the mating dance that directors and writers do and essentially created a new outline". After the writers produced a new treatment, "I was so excited that I had to put it into production immediately and eight months later we had a show ". This was at La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) Playhouse in San Diego, where McAnuff has been the artistic director of the last 25 years. Astoundingly, he seemed destined to direct this show from childhood as "this was the first album that I ever bought as a kid, I was a 10-year-old and I bought Sherry and eleven others and wore the grooves out" and after that "I always had a soft spot in my heart for them". Having said that, he is honest enough to admit, "I will confess I was really dubious about the idea of creating a biography out of their stories until I actually looked at their stories and it is such a remarkable tale and such an unlikely tale that these guys from Belleville, New Jersey could get out of the Bowery and achieve such success." It was that rags to riches story rather than the music that persuaded him to take on the project. He knew from a pretty early stage that he had a success on his hands, but had no real idea that this would be a smash hit Broadway musical, winner of the Best Musical along with three other Tonys in 2006 and still playing to full houses two years on. The director attributes this success to "the common touch - it seemed to just appeal to a very wide range of people and fortunately it's just grown from there". He was also pleased that the show has appealed to people of all ages, and while that has something to do with the music he is convinced that this is far more attributable to the story. "It is a story about class, a story about the family that you choose as opposed to the family you're born into and a vast number of people can relate to this". McAnuff has brought the full American backstage team across but put together a cast recruited in Britain. His enthusiasm is unbounded as he says, "The members of this cast are brilliant. I was astounded at how easy it was to cast here." He puts this down to a major step forward taken in the field of musical theatre in Britain over the last few years meaning that not only are his cast good singers but all of them have real acting talent as well. Before Jersey Boys has even opened in London, its director is looking ahead to a series of other projects. He hopes that the first will premiere on this side of the Atlantic. It is a musical treatment of a Russian novel that is now best known as a film classic starring Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. He makes it sound tempting: "Doctor Zhivago is an epic love story set against a background of one of the most violent and tumultuous times in history". He is bold enough to make the statemen,"I believe it is a story that sings." The music has been composed by Lucy Simon, best known for The Secret Garden, whom he describes as "a tremendous melodist", which, "in the tradition of Tchaikovsky, should work perfectly for a Russian story". His third current project is Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention, currently playing on Broadway at the Music Box. This is the story of Philo Farnsworth who invented television or, to be more accurate, electronic television where our own John Logie Baird invented the mechanical version. "It's really a story about the patent for television in America. Philo was this farm boy who had an epiphany when he was 14 and saw television (as opposed to watching it). He's a Mozart of science in America". The story eventually develops into a 17 year court case which Farnsworth fought with David Sarnoff, the founder of RCA. In its director's eyes, what the play is actually about is "two men fighting for their place in history. As audience members we're the jury they're trying to convince". A straight play with a cast of twenty has proved a joy as well as a challenge and is almost unique on Broadway these days. This is made possible by a team of producers, including Stephen Spielberg, "who are all passionate about the play". There is a good chance that The Farnsworth Invention might make it over to London, as one of McAnuff's engagements earlier in the week had been a lunch with individuals whose names he did not wish to divulge, to discuss the prospect. He has also made a fundamental life changed by leaving La Jolla after 25 years as artistic director, to take on a new post at Stratford Ontario where he is one of three people sharing the artistic director role at what used to be known as the Shakespeare Festival. The process of change is not quite as drastic as it might seem, since "they were independent decisions". He intends to remain close to his old home but is now excited about the new post. "I grew up in Canada. I love doing Shakespeare and Molière and classical plays. It has become increasingly difficult to do work like that at La Jolla. In a sense it's like going home. "The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is actually the second largest English-speaking theatre in the world right behind the National Theatre of Great Britain. It is a really important cultural resource. I'm excited by the challenges it presents. I'm also thrilled to be able to direct Shakespeare on a large scale". He starts rehearsals of Romeo and Juliet while carrying on all of his other projects around the world and will be following that by doing Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra starring Christopher Plummer. Longer term, his ambition is to do the tetralogy from Richard II to Henry V, something that he has wanted to do ever since he worked with Joseph Papp in Central Park close to three decades ago. "We all think of Hamlet and Othello and the tragedies as the great masterpieces. I think when you examine this as a group of plays, it's truly dazzling". He is very envious that Michael Boyd has managed to do this recently for the RSC but is hoping that it could be programmed at Stratford in 2010 and can hardly wait. As if this is not enough for any director, Des McAnuff is also exploring the possibility of doing a modern opera with a well-known composer on a subject that he was too coy to reveal publicly, but will prove a real revelation if it ever comes off. Just to top it all, he is currently working with Aaron Sorkin once again, developing a project with rock band The Flaming Lips, based on the concept album - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots! With this kind of imagination and variety, there is no doubt that will be hearing a great deal from the redoubtable Des McAnuff in the near future.
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