What: Jersey Boys
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Through June 2
Tickets: $114.75-$125 from the Royal McPherson box office, by phone at 250-386-6121 or online from rmts.bc.ca
With a win at the Tony Awards next month, Des McAnuff would enter rarefied territory in the world of theatre.
If things go as expected and the 66-year-old, who has two wins for best director under his belt, wins the trophy for directing Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations on June 9, he would move into a tie for second place on the list of the winningest directors in Tony Awards history.
This comes as a surprise to McAnuff, who considers himself something of an artistic everyman. “I don’t have exotic, peculiar tastes. If I like the story and I’m interested in it, I figure there’s bound to be some other people interested, too.”
McAnuff earned a Tony Award nomination in 2006 for Jersey Boys, the decorated jukebox musical about the life and times of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. A touring version based on the original production opens tonight at the Royal Theatre with the blessing of McAnuff, who guided the original to one of the longest runs in Broadway history. “It has been such a privilege. When I think back on all the things I have been a part of, Jersey Boys has such a soft spot in my heart.”
McAnuff has been a part of plenty of successes during his 42-year career, the likes of which earned him a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2012. He directed Christopher Plummer in The Tempest, Robert De Niro in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Billy Crystal in 700 Sundays, and co-wrote The Who’s Tommy with Pete Townshend. He is the former artistic director of Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival and California’s legendary La Jolla Playhouse, taught at the Juilliard School and directed at Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre. He is also a former board member of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
Which is to say his involvement with the production of Jersey Boys that arrives in Victoria tonight for eight performances has been a blessing. Touring productions based on the original, which won four Tony Awards in 2006, including best musical, have set attendance records, but the magical run comes to a close for good later this year. McAnuff said he will always think fondly of the production, which was a surprise smash, grossing over $800 million and selling more than seven million tickets worldwide.
A story about a somewhat forgotten singing group from the 1960s didn’t seem like much during the concept stage, but the musical captured audiences nonetheless. “Jersey Boys was a particular kind of concoction,” he said.
“A musical is rarely just one thing. You’re bonding together a whole bunch of different ingredients, and that’s what creates the brew for the audience. In the case of Jersey Boys, you have the music and rags-to-riches-to-rags story of the Four Seasons, but you also have the Mafia and corruption in the music business. And you have Italian-Americans. If there’s a secret to doing theatre, we serve the audience by giving them stories they are interested in.”
Born in Princeton, Illinois, but raised in Scarborough, Ont., McAnuff now splits his time between New York and Connecticut. He is effectively based in New York, but has a variety of interests that take him across the world for work. That list is ever growing.
The one-time rocker (who fronted Toronto glam group The Choke Sisters in the mid-’70s) has directed a number of musicals written directly for the stage, and his experience with certified classics is vast. However, McAnuff is becoming known of late for adaptations with a biographical slant. The run began with Jersey Boys in 2005 and now includes Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (2017) and Ain’t Too Proud (2017).
“I’ve had a pretty healthy batting average with those particular shows,” he said. “But I’ve done more classical work.”
His schedule at present involves creating a touring version of Summer, which closed on Broadway last year after 289 performances. It is almost a given that Ain’t Too Proud, a jukebox musical about Motown group The Temptations, will follow the same route, given its success up to this point.
McAnuff welcomes the opportunity. “I love to be challenged by entering a new solar system. It’s not like I sit there and try to figure out what’s going to be popular — I would not be able to do that. I wish I could. But if I’m not passionate about something, and really curious, it’s going to be DOA. I wouldn’t even bother trying.”
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