Des McAnuff News

La Jolla Playhouse announces The Cake, a new play by Bekah Brunstetter (TV's This is Us), as the final production of its 2017/2018 season, running in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre February 6 - March 4, 2018.

San Diego Repertory Theatre (San Diego REP) hosts the 24th Annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival from May 21 through July 9, 2017.

More than 28,000 theatergoers cheered when JERSEY BOYS made its premiere in Miami in 2011. Worldwide, more than 20 million people have seen JERSEY BOYS. And now, the show that made critics and audiences cheer will return to the Arsht Center!  

La Jolla Playhouse announced today the complete casting and public on-sale date for its world-premiere musical Escape to Margaritaville, featuring the songs of legendary singer-songwriter-author Jimmy Buffett.

'Jersey Boys,' with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, choreography by Sergio Trujillo, and direction by Des McAnuff, will run at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre beginning May 16 for an opening night on May 18. Performances will continue through June 24, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the touring cast in action below!

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced a collection of seven productions for its 2017-18 subscription season. Featured in the season are new and classic works by Tony Kushner, Julia Cho, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Dominique Morisseau, Nilaja Sun, Lillian Hellman, directed by Tony Taccone, Lisa Peterson, Des McAnuff, and Ron Russell. The season includes two world premieres and one West Coast premiere.

Long Wharf Theatre, under the director of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joshua Borenstein, presents the world premiere of The Most Beautiful Room in New York, a new musical with book and lyrics by Adam Gopnik and music by David Shire, directed by Edelstein.

Due to overwhelming public demand, the producers of JERSEY BOYS are delighted to announce a second UK & Ireland Tour with a two-week run at the King's Theatre, Glasgow next year.

Due to overwhelming public demand, the producers of JERSEY BOYS are delighted to announce a second UK & Ireland Tour, to open at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham on 16 December 2017.

La Jolla Playhouse announces a collaboration with the acclaimed theatre group Ping Chong + Company to develop and present South of The 8, a brand-new, community-engaged piece, created with and performed by a group individuals living in neighborhoods south of the I-8. Scripted by Sara Zatz and Daniela Rivera and directed by Sara Zatz, South of The 8 will have three public presentations on Friday, March 31 at 7:30pm and Saturday, April 1 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm at the City Heights Performance Annex (3795 Fairmount Avenue). Tickets are $15 and are available online at LaJollaPlayhouse.org or by calling (858) 550-1010.

TIME Magazine's #1 Show of the Year, MATILDA THE MUSICAL, is coming to San Jose as part of Broadway San Jose's 2016-17 season. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Dodgers, the first national tour of MATILDA THE MUSICAL will be coming to The Center for the Performing Arts (255 S. Almaden, San Jose) March 7-12, 2017. 

La Jolla Playhouse announced today the principal leads for Escape to Margaritaville, the new musical featuring the songs of legendary singer-songwriter-author Jimmy Buffett. Paul Alexander Nolan will lead the cast as Tully, and will be joined by Alison Luff as Rachel and Lisa Howard as Tammy.

La Jolla Playhouse announces a special benefit engagement of The Lady at the Mic, written by and starring Charles Busch(Playhouse's The Third Story, Broadway's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife), accompanied by Tom Judson, to be performed atThe Abbey at 2825 Fifth Avenue on Friday, March 24 at 8:00pm.

After playing the Narrator in the original West End production in 1979, Peter Straker returns to the iconic rock opera THE WHO'S TOMMY as the Acid Queen.

The Kweskin Theatre will be rocking when The Who's Tommy begins a three-week run on February 2.

Due to overwhelming public demand, there will be an extra performance of the West End smash hit musical JERSEY BOYS in its final week at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 23 March at 3.00pm. This week - week commencing 13 February 2017 - JERSEY BOYS has broken the house record for ticket sales in the history of the Piccadilly Theatre.

La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for its 2017 Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour production, #SuperShinySara, by Wesley Middleton, and helmed by acclaimed San Diego director and Moxie Theatre Artistic Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Counterweight, Without Walls Festival 2013). The production will tour schools throughout San Diego County, now through March 31, 2017.

Due to overwhelming demand, La Jolla Playhouse is adding a seventh week of performances for Disney's Freaky Friday.  The show will extend its run through March 19. 

One would assume that Mark Twain would have been amused that his 1884 novel condemning America's history of enslavement of Africans, 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' has occasionally been condemned itself as racist literature for its realistic use of a certain slur.

La Jolla Playhouse announces the world premiere of Kill Local, by UC San Diego MFA playwriting graduate Mat Smart, directed by Jackson Gay (Kingdom City), as part of its 2017/2018 season, to run in August, 2017 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.