In a company the size of Pittsburgh CLO, what does the producer do?

You might rather ask what he doesn't. Executive producer Van Kaplan praises his staff, but he's inevitably involved in just about everything. The only thing he usually doesn't do is hands-on direct the show itself.

So this summer Kaplan figured there was just enough time and space to assign himself to direct, and the result is the "West Side Story" that opens Tuesday, the final mainstage production of the 2008 Benedum Center season.

"I want to direct every year," he says, "but usually there's no time to focus on a show and give it the time it needs." This is his 11th season at the CLO helm but only the third time he's directed, following "Guys and Dolls" (2002) and "She Loves Me" (2003). In between those two, he even took time to direct "Speaking in Tongues" for Quantum Theatre.

But then, he points out, "we got into 'Dr. Dolittle' land" -- the big tour that absorbed so much energy for several years.

This year offered a rare window of opportunity. The recently announced expansion of the Gene Kelly Awards to the national level will consume Kaplan in the year ahead. And there's another Big Project around the corner, a tour that he won't identify but calls "the biggest thing we've ever done and quite a coup."

It's not that Kaplan is unused to directing. He started as a performer, then began directing several shows a year in his previous theater, Casa Manana in Fort Worth. He figures he's directed maybe 100 shows in all. But "I usually do comedies, so this is a challenge and an opportunity."

Of course he already knows "West Side Story" well, having produced it as recently at 1999 at CLO -- and did we say he's a hands-on producer? But as the boss, he could have chosen any show. So why this one?

On the one hand, he says it's one of his favorites. But mainly, it's the one on this year's list that fit his schedule. And because it's dance-heavy, he arranged to work with choreographer Mark Esposito, with whom he worked in Fort Worth and on the two other CLO shows he's directed.

"We have the same language," he says, so Kaplan can direct a musical move and Esposito choreograph an acting choice. Kaplan figures he's doing some musical staging on at least four songs.

"But it's difficult because all the characters are involved in the big dance numbers, even the leads, so I lose them for a lot of rehearsal time."

In spite of his directing so seldom, Kaplan sees it as central: "I enjoy teaching, working with actors, and I always have. I think directing is teaching. I like working with people, feeding off their energy." Then the producer kicks in: "But I feel that way around the office, too. This is a very open-door shop, very collaborative."

Another reason to choose "West Side Story" is that it's "quite possibly the best American musical -- it's perfection." He says Leonard Bernstein's music and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics "advance the plot better than any musical I know" -- and what musicals doesn't he know? Even the ballet ("Somewhere"), which is usual in musicals of this period, "really drives the plot."

Being the boss, Kaplan does have an advantage in auditions: "I get the people I want." And for this show, "you don't want a TV star -- you want young kids."

Not that the producer in him ever nods off. "You still have to have a set that works and stay on budget." He praises his staff, which isn't afraid to say no to him, the way he says no to directors who ask for too much.

He calls it "a great show for the ensemble, since everyone has a character name and a backstory, and many have lines." This year's ensemble has had to be tweaked, though, since the show is "all about guys. And they all have to dance -- really dance."

In casting, ethnicity, or at least its appearance, rears its tricky head. That issue is being addressed directly by original director Arthur Laurents this fall: having seen a Spanish production and found it newly raw and immediate, his planned Broadway revival will be bi-lingual.

"If we could do [the Sharks] with a complete Hispanic company, we ought to, but it's hard," Kaplan says. So he settles for not forcing someone "into a slot they aren't right for. We want it to ring true. It's a very big puzzle."

He doesn't feel the show is dated at all. The movie, yes: "it's stylized and presentational. You wouldn't buy it today. We've come to expect a more here-and-now style of acting." But bigotry is still rampant. "If it's played honestly, it's not dated at all."

Kaplan also says this is "the kind of show Pittsburgh likes, a classic American musical." But is that the director talking, or the wishful thinking producer? It's been a tough summer at the CLO box office: "When your upper tier [the cheapest seats] sells out first, that reflects the economy."