McAnuff to step down at La Jolla

Split between commitments on Broadway and to the La Jolla Playhouse, Des McAnuff will step down as artistic director of the nonprofit theater company when his contract runs out next spring, playhouse officials announced Wednesday.

McAnuff, who was in New York City working on casting for the playhouse’s upcoming production of “The Wiz,” issued a statement citing both personal reasons and recent “outside opportunities,” including demands from playhouse-spawned shows that are on or bound for Broadway. “It has become crucial for me to spend more time in New York,” he said.

Ralph Bryan, president of the playhouse board, said that trustees were forming a committee to find and install a successor by April; McAnuff will then assume the newly created post of director emeritus.

McAnuff won best director Tonys for “Big River” and “The Who’s Tommy,” both from his initial 1983-1994 hitch as La Jolla artistic director.

His second term, which began five years ago after a sojourn directing and producing films, spawned “Jersey Boys,” a Broadway hit about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons that McAnuff directed, and which this month won the Tony for best new musical.

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-- Mike Boehm