London's most envied luvvie

Madonna is facing the most nerve-wracking performance of her career as she steps onto the Wyndham stage to put herself at the mercy of the world's sternest critics. She can only hope the reviews for Up For Grabs are as favourable as Gwyneth Paltrow's and Matt Damon's, both currently setting London's theatreland alight. What few in the audience will know is that if it hadn't been for the extraordinary efforts of one man, Madonna and Matt may never have got this far.

Director Laurence Boswell has done the seemingly impossible: directed two of America's most driven stars at the same time in neighbouring theatres - and lived to tell the tale.

So, how has this mild-mannered, quietly spoken Brit attracted the calibre of talent normally used to being directed by the likes of Steven Spielberg and Guy Ritchie?

Boswell, 43, an ex-council estate boy from Coventry, once managed Notting Hill's Gate Theatre. Although hardly a newcomer to the London's luvvie circles, few outside that clique knew who he was until now.

I met him on a Greek holistic holiday retreat just before it was announced he would direct Damon and Madonna. He'd gone to unwind after directing Clive Owen and Prunella Scales in A Day In The Death of Joe Egg. As the rave reviews were faxed over by his agent, who declared him "the David Beckham of the West End", Boswell glowed.

This is his pattern - he works himself into the ground, this time on two productions at once - then goes off to recoup his sanity before starting on the next project.

On Skyros he attended a personal development workshop called "work-ing with dreams" and made everyone

laugh. A lot. He made friends and enemies in about equal measure. For, though abundant in charm and charisma, he has a caustic wit that can be more than a little cruel. His mood was quixotic too. One day he was glittering company, a spectacular flirt - the next, glum.

His occasional Sid James/Carry On accent was nowhere in evidence when four of us met up at The Ivy some months later. This was an altogether different Boswell. I realised that what he sent up so hilariously on holiday, he actually takes rather seriously.

Boswell lives in East Dulwich with an actress called Sarah, his partner of 22 years, with whom he has two young children. They met at Manchester University, where Boswell studied drama alongside Ben Elton, for whom he directed Popcorn.