McAnuff Takes Top Honors at San Diego Theatre Awards

In addition to winning an award for his direction of the musical The Wiz , McAnuff was given a special Artistic Visionary Award for his work in propelling the Playhouse to national prominence.

The critics also announced that a perpetual award has been named for McAnuff. The Des McAnuff New Visions Award will be given in future years to artists who "exhibit McAnuff's spirit of risk, innovation and adventure. The first recipient is Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, Artistic Director of edgy, women-centered Moxie Theatre, who directed five productions at four San Diego County theaters in 2006," state press notes.

The critics handed out 33 awards, covering productions staged in 2006 and two special awards. It was the Circle's fifth annual ceremony and the first in the beautiful setting of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in La Jolla.

McAnuff's Artistic Visionary Award, the first ever given by the critics, included a 20-minute tribute featuring a special filmed tribute about McAnuff's career in San Diego and the many Tony Award ®-winning musicals and plays he has launched to Broadway, including Big River, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Who's Tommy, 700 Sundays and Jersey Boys, among others.

The film, by Martin Morawski with an original score by Michael Roth, included videotaped tributes to McAnuff by numerous celebrities and collaborators, including Billy Crystal (star of 700 Sundays); the cast of McAnuff's most recently musical effort in La Jolla, The Wiz; the Broadway cast and crew of Jersey Boys; actor and McAnuff protégé Jefferson Mays (Tony Award-winning star of I Am My Own Wife, which McAnuff first workshopped in La Jolla) and Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien, Artistic Director of San Diego's Old Globe, among others.

The critics cited McAnuff's creative spirit, which "revived La Jolla Playhouse and sustained its achievement over 25 years 1982- 2007."

Capping off the tribute was a speech and song by Tony-winning Jersey Boys star Christian Hoff, a longtime San Diegan who McAnuff first mentored in The Who's Tommy. Hoff, who took a brief break from Jersey Boys in New York to attend the ceremony, praised McAnuff for the impact the director has had on his career.

After learning last summer that McAnuff will leave the Playhouse in April to join the artistic staff at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle (which represents the major print and online media outlets in the county), voted enthusiastically and unanimously to honor two-time Tony Award-winner McAnuff with its first Artistic Visionary Award.

"Sad as we are to see him move into 'emeritus' status at the Playhouse and into his new duties at the Stratford Festival, we warmly thank him for 25 years of enlivening San Diego theatre, and we wish him the very best ? and an occasional return to the Playhouse by-the-sea that will always be his legacy," Welsh said.

Visit www.lajollaplayhouse.com for more information.

Photos by Ion Moe; 1) Craig Noel, Des McAnuff and Christian Hoff; Photo 2) Christian Hoff