'80 Days' a Fun and Polished Lookingglass World Premiere

Multicultural story theater, with a touch of romance and a large dollop of stage fights, is on display now at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, where a world premiere adaptation of Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" opened on Saturday night, April 26, 2008.

Lookingglass is the Chicago theater company known for its development of athletically inclined adaptations of world-referencing literary works, most notably those written and/or directed by Tony-winner Mary Zimmerman ("Metamorphoses"). It is also known as the company with which "Friends" star David Schwimmer maintains affiliation. Yet another of the company's Ensemble Members, the Brooklyn-dwelling two-time Joseph Jefferson Award-winner Laura Eason, has written and directed this adaptation in celebration of the company's twentieth anniversary, and she has done a fine job of satisfying a number of different types of audiences. The company's subscription base, hard-core theatergoers, children and/or tourists, the literary-minded and those who like a good action story, the romantic and the restless wanderer, men and women—all of them will find something to like here. All considered, that in itself is quite a feat.

The hardworking and multicultural ensemble cast of eight does a great job of taking the willing audience on a fun and easy-to-follow trip, Candide-like, from train to boat to customs house and around again, starting from London and hitting Calais, Brindisi, Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Fransisco, New York, Liverpool and London again  (Chicago is mentioned, but not depicted). Many spots in between the connection points are depicted, though, most notably the interior of India, where a cleverly conceived elephant takes our hero, Phileas Fogg (Philip R. Smith), and his valet Passepartout (the athletic and charming Kevin Douglas), into a dangerous jungle momentarily reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling and Walt Disney.

We also spend time in Fogg's London home, and in the gentleman's club where he bets a considerable sum on his ability to circumnavigate the globe (albeit a very English-speaking one) in the titular time period. The opening sequence, by the way, is remarkably clever and theatrical, though its brilliance is not quite matched in the rest of the evening, excepting the scenes involving the great deal of fight choreography, credited to cast member Nick Sandys.

Aside from the elephant ride, other clever bits of business include some charming non-verbal communication over some disobedient tea cups, a ride on a sail/sled combination in a whirl of snow and song, and a storm on board a sailboat, rigging all a-flapping. The second act plays a bit stronger than the first, perhaps because of that storm and also a rip-roarin' wild west shoot-'em-up, but also because the romance between Fogg and the Indian-born Mrs. Aouda (the excellent Ravi Batista) heats up then in nicely understated fashion.

The first act contains that elephant as well as a couple of good fist fights, but early on I was afraid the show would veer too far into children's theater territory to hold the interest of the novel-loving and anglophile audiences. Though the pacing is slightly uneven, the show holds the boards quite well, and uses a fairly broad palette of staging techniques in telling a story which could be told accurately enough as an episodic travelogue. This production aims higher, and frequently succeeds.

Multi-character men Nick Sandys and Rom Barkhordar come off the best of the entire cast, frequently unrecognizable through voice, manner and costumes (by the amazing Mara Blumenfeld). Joe Dempsey as Inspector Fix (a more comical, and more English, version of "Les Miserables"' Inspector Javert) was frequently delightful, and Anish Jethmalani and Ericka Ratcliff were brilliant in some spots as well in their potpourri of characters.

Oddly, the actor who impressed the least was Smith as Mr. Fogg himself. The company's Producing Artistic Director, Smith did a good job of portraying the stiff-upper-lip Brit who learns in the nick of time that he needs the love of a good woman (G. B. Shaw's Mr. Higgins and P. L. Travers' Mr. Banks both come to mind), but he was a bit too bland to hold his own against the excellent character work surrounding him, and he was frequently too mumbly and soft. Also, he was not helped by the fact that the recorded music, by the composer Kevin O'Donnell, was just too loud for my taste. 

The set, by Jacqueline and Richard Penrod, was clever and took full advantage of the theater's black box design and grid of trap doors. And Lee Keenan's lights were effective enough. The production has moments of real excitement (actors running everywhere!), much like those theme park fights that break out every hour on the hour, and thrill you by their closeness and their surprise. There is feeling to, in the way Mrs. Aouda's story, and then her spirit, break through Fogg's "mathematical" mind and world and life. If the script is not transcendent in itself, it is not just connect-the-dots, which it certainly would have been had you or I written it.

Overall, attending this production is a fun and entertaining way to remember the delights of Verne's novel itself, to introduce this story of the great big world (before the internet) to those you love, and to experience the wonder of live theater in its inventiveness and its power to transport. A grown-up, family-friendly show, all in two hours, and on Michigan Avenue, no less!  As I said before, that in itself is quite a feat. 

"Around the World in 80 Days" runs Wednesdays through Sundays through June 1, 2008 at 821 N. Michigan Avenue at Pearson, in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district. Tickets are available through the Lookingglass box office, (312) 337-0665 or www.lookingglasstheatre.org.

Photos by Sean Williams.  (1) Philip R. Smith and Kevin Douglas, (2) Douglas and Smith, (3) Douglas, Anish Jethmalani, Ravi Batista, Joe Dempsey and Smith, and (4) Smith and Batista.

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