Theater Review / Around the World in 80 Days A delectable holiday treat

By Joanna Brady

This time of year, we’re always ready for a good laugh to get us into the merry spirit of the holidays, and the Waterfront Playhouse never disappoints. This season, the theater is featuring a play based on the great Jules Verne classic, Around the World in 80 Days.

 The thrust of this play, written by Mark Brown, is pretty faithful to that of the original novel: 19th century London dilettante Phileas Fogg sets up a wager of 20,000 pounds sterling with his rich London friends at the stuffy Reform Club that he, or anyone else, can travel the world in 80 days. 

The Jules Verne novel—call it an adventure novel, ‘steampunk’ before its time—was first published in 1873, and was introduced to an adoring public as monthly installments; which is why there are “Perils of Pauline” type hooks and cliffhangers, giving the work a sustained excitement. 

Part history lesson, part geography lesson, we watch the exacting Phileas Fogg as he traipses across the globe racing, not against anyone else, but against time to win the impossible gentlemen’s wager. Nate Washburn plays the lead role brilliantly, with suitable British aplomb and disdain. His matinee idol good looks hint at a future romantic bent in the play, but that is the farthest thing from his mind when he seals the bet. 

The character of Phileas Fogg has become a stoic archetype; the smart operator who never loses his cool. We have to wonder, though. . . Is he just a rich, eccentric OCD gentleman trying to prove a point, or is there some other intent behind his smooth façade? Where does his money come from? His friends at the club don’t know, and neither do we. Perhaps he’s a criminal mastermind on the run? 

A dogged English Sherlock Holmes type detective certainly thinks so. He’s convinced our hero is a notorious bank robber. Villainous and sinister, (played by the very talented Ross Pipkin) he’s determined to get his man by any means possible, and he follows him till the end, continually throwing obstacles in his path. 

Phileas Fogg sets out with his new but loyal servant Passepartout, an eager-to- please Frenchman overly fond of wine and too easily swayed by temptation (nicely played with a heavy French accent by Aaron Duclos). The object of the bet is to achieve an incredible journey, leaving from London to Paris, then to Brindisi, Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York and back to London again, all in just eighty days. A seemingly undoable feat in mid 19th century.  

Michael Boyer’s magical set—a huge map with pin lights to mark off each stop—helps us trace their dizzying route. There are many alarms and zany surprises along the way, and a last minute setback that makes all the difference between winning and forfeiting, as the trip winds down to an exciting finish.

Verne’s imagination was fertile, and the plot is manic. With time and a ticking clock bearing down on them, the trip is rife with traps to block Phileas Fogg’s progress. Yet, the ‘stiff upper lip’ Fogg manages to squeeze in romance, taking the time to save a damsel in distress at a suttee in India. The lovely Aouda (played charmingly by the talented Erin McKenna) is not just a pretty face. She’s smart, and can match Fogg’s cool even as she takes on a party of angry Apaches with a rifle in the wild west leg of the adventure. 

Yes, Verne’s clichés were numerous, and not always politically correct. We meet all the usual suspects in this show—about 39 characters—played by 6 frantic actors who change costumes with bewildering speed. Incredibly versatile are Steve Miller and Don Bartolone, who take on at least twenty characters between them.  Playing a variety of roles, they pop up in places we’ve only imagined by ship, by elephant, by trains and any other conveyance they can find as the party is besieged by oriental opium pushers, an elephant owner, typhoons, native Indian attacks on trains, and an annoying American who challenges Phileas to a pistol duel. 

The stock characters are all there, ready to kick off your holiday season with a chuckle. Orchestrating them is the multi-talented actor/director, John McDonald, who keeps up the momentum with just the right pace. Kudos to Leigh Hooten, costume designer, for whom the play had to be a challenging venture. 

It’s all happening at the Award Winning Waterfront Playhouse, now celebrating its 80th Anniversary. 

Around the World in 80 days at the Waterfront Playhouse runs from Dec. 12 – 28. Discounted preview on Dec. 11. While it might be too cerebral for very young children, by all means bring the older kids to this entertaining play. Special performances at 8pm on December 24 and 25! Located at Mallory Square. For more information and tickets, go to WaterfrontPlayhouse.org or call 305 294-5015.

(Joanna Brady is a Key West writer, author of the historical novel of Key West, The Woman at the Light, published by St. Martin’s Press)

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