Reviews for Different Stages Performances
Review: Charley's Aunt by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 31, 2015
Farces about courting and deception have a fine long history, for what's more amusing that the earnest efforts of the young to wriggle around the constraining conventions of society?
Norman Blumensaadt, artistic director of Different Stages, has over the past 34 years provided a continuing anthology of the theatre, the living equivalent of that imposing row of books in public libraries, The Best Plays of [year]. The series on American dramas ran from the 1930's to 1993 as founding editor John Gasner was replaced by Clive Barnes. Blumensaadt's reach is wider and, if anything, more determined. The Different Stages programs list them all, providing …
Review: Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 19, 2015
Different Stages' production of Mauritius is a crackerjack film noir, up close, live and in color.
Different Stages' production of Mauritius is a crackerjack film noir, up close, live and in color. Although there are three playing areas cursorily defined by Ann Marie Gordon's set on the City Theatre stage and the director chooses at times to leave two of them inhabited, the impression created by the clash of competing interests is that it's all taking place in one room. Perhaps in the claustrophobic room of the mind, for these characters …
Review: Pygmalion by Different Stages
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 09, 2014
Different Stages’ production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at the Vortex in East Austin is low on the radar in this summer of spectacular productions, but theatergoers should search out this classic play, updated and made fresh as the violets in Eliza Doolittle’s basket by Director Norman Blumensaadt. Different Stages has much to be proud of, at most levels, in this new production of an older and well-known play. The play derives ultimately from the …
Review: Pygmalion by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 01, 2014
The production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion playing at the Vortex is a sparkling interpretation by Norman Blumensaadt and the Different Stages cast and crew. This is a production not to be missed by anyone who appreciates the magic of narrative theatre. Practically all of us have seen the film version of Lerner and Loewe’s musical interpretation, My Fair Lady. It was relatively faithful to Shaw’s 1913 play, so there’ll be moments when you’ll suddenly …
Review: The Language Archive by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 16, 2014
Julia Cho's The Language Archive is a gently sentimental tale built inside a concept, similar to the way nesting birds inhabit a hedge. The theme is the failure of communication, and the metaphor is a collection of recordings and documents describing extinct languages curated by George, a fussy, white-coated linguist who's tongue-tied when it comes to expressing any sentiment. Cho writes her characters as variations on that theme. The gulf between George and his wife …
Review: Arsenic and Old Lace by Different Stages
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 01, 2013
Different Stages is mounting Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace at the Vortex Theatre in East Austin from November 22nd to December 14th. It is something of a comedy standard and comes highly recommended. As Director Blumensaadt stated during his curtain speech, Arsenic and Old Lace is from the 1940s, produced on Broadway in 1941. It is also listed as a comedy classic, and that it certainly is, a period piece with sharp dialogue throughout …