Broadway director’s home sale notches Weston’s 17-year sales peak

Des McAnuff traded Connecticut home for $6.5M

Des McAnuff and 10 Dragonwood Lane in Weston, Connecticut (Getty Images, Zillow)
Des McAnuff and 10 Dragonwood Lane in Weston, Connecticut (Getty Images, Zillow)

An award-winning Broadway director has earned another distinction, this time in real estate just over 50 miles north of where he first made his name.

Two-time Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and his wife Bryna McCann sold their Weston, Connecticut, house for $6.5 million. The deal marks the area’s highest price for a home sale since 2005.

McAnuff bought the land in 2011 before the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home was built in 2013. The house is “anchored” on either end by waterfalls, which feed a stream that runs under the home. Visitors can watch the home’s koi swim by from the comfort of their chair.

Compass’ Robin Kencel, who had the listing, declined to identify the buyer of the 8,500-square-foot home that’s tucked away on 15 acres of land, but said the listing photos caught their attention.

“The buyer was not even in the market for this type of property,” she said.

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She cited the high sales price to the home’s unique design and the relative scarcity of inventory in the area.

Fairfield County’s new listings have been on a 16-month slide, and newly signed contracts fell year over year in August and July, according to the latest report by Douglas Elliman compiled by Miller Samuel.

“I’m seeing people less concerned about overall distance to Manhattan than they used to be,” Kencel said. “This property achieved this number also because the buyers were fine being just that much farther away from Manhattan.”

McAnuff, who paid $1.45 million for the land in 2011, won his first Tony Award for Best Director in 1985 for “Big River,” a musical based on Marc Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The director won again in 1993 for directing “The Who’s Tommy,” a rock musical with songs written by Pete Townshend of The Who. His wife, Bryna McCann, is an artist.

The deal is Kencel’s second big Connecticut sale in recent weeks, coming after she brokered Corcoran agent and “Million Dollar Listing” star Steve Gold’s $7 million purchase in Greenwich over the summer.