Different Stages Presents TOO MANY HUSBANDS Thru July 16

Too Many Husbands by W. Somerset Maugham plays through July 16, 2011 at The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd. map Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

Pick your Price Tickets: $15, $20, $25, $30
Reservations: 478-5282

Get 2 FOR 1 TICKETS with password, Of Human Bondage, during opening weekend!

Different Stages closes its 2010-2011 season with W. Somerset Maugham's comedy Too Many Husbands. A fast, frivolous, comedy the plot focuses on Victoria, a delectably pretty but ruthlessly self-centered young woman whose husband; William was reported killed three years earlier in World War I. But William is not dead; he is on his way to London for a reunion with his wife, unaware that she is now married to his best friend, Freddie. The situation is complicaTed Further by the discovery that the avaricious Victoria already has a third husband in view, a rich entrepreneur, for who she plans to dump both Freddie and William, feeling she has made sacrifice enough for the war effort. Through their ingenuity the two friends finally win their freedom and Victoria her wealthy third husband.

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (The Night of the Iguana), Too Many Husbands features Martina Ohlhauser (Hay Fever) as Victoria, Joe Hartman (MilkMilkLeomnade) as Freddie and Brian Villalobos (The Crucible) as William. Also featured are Tony Salinas (The Night of the Iguana) as the rich entrepreneur, Lydia Blanco (My Visit With MGM) as Mrs. Shuttleworth, Paula Gilbert (An Inspector Calls) as a cook, Phoebe Greene ( The Night of the Iguana) as the parlor maid, and Ashley McNerney as the nanny. Phil Cole (The Skin of Our Teeth) and Julie Winston-Thomas (Spider's Web) play the divorce lawyer and his assistant. Also included are Amy Lewis (The Skin of Our Teeth) as a manicurist and Wade Belew as a delivery boy.

For tickets and information call 478-5282
William Somerset Maugham was born in the British Embassy in Paris on 25th January, 1874. William's father, Robert Ormond Maugham, a wealthy solicitor, worked for the Embassy in France. By the time he was ten, both William's parents were dead and he was sent to live with his uncle, the Rev. Henry Maugham, in Whitstable, Kent.

After an education at King's School, Canterbury, and Heildelberg University in Germany, Maugham became a medical student at St. Thomas Hospital, London. While training to be a doctor Maugham worked as an obstetric clerk in the slums of Lambeth. He used these experiences to help him write his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897).

The book sold well and he decided to abandon medicine and become a full-time writer. Maugham achieved fame with his play Lady Frederick (1907), a comedy about money and marriage. By 1908 Maugham had four plays running simultaneously in London.

On the outbreak of the First World War, Maugham, now aged forty, joined a Red Cross ambulance unit in France. While serving on the Western Front he met the 22 year old American, Gerald Haxton. The two men became lovers and lived together for the next thirty years. During the war Maugham was invited by Sir John Wallinger, head of Britain's Military Intelligence (MI6) in France, to act as a secret service agent. Maugham agreed and over the next few years acted as a link between MI6 in London and its agents working in Europe.

Maugham had sexual relationships with both men and women and in 1915, Syrie Wellcome, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Barnardo, gave birth to his child. Her husband, Henry Wellcome, cited Maugham as co-respondent in divorce proceedings. After the divorce in 1916, Maugham married Syrie but continued to live with Gerald Haxton.

During the war, Maugham's best-known novel, Of Human Bondage (1915) was published. This was followed by another successful book, The Moon and Sixpence (1919). Maugham also developed a reputation as a fine short-story writer, one story, Rain, which appeared in The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), was also turned into a successful feature film. Popular plays written by Maugham include The Circle (1921), East of Suez (1922), The Constant Wife (1926) and the anti-war play, For Services Rendered (1932).

In his later years Maugham wrote his autobiography, Summing Up (1938) and works of fiction such as The Razor's Edge (1945), Catalina (1948) and Quartet (1949).

Maugham died in 1965.

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