It's A Wonderful World: Around the World in 80 Days

            Though remade into a forgettable 2004 movie starring Jackie Chan, "Around the World in 80 Days" is perhaps best remembered as the 1956 film starring David Niven as the punctiliously precise Phineas Fogg. The trailer of that film promises the audience a trip across "two oceans, five seas," by "eight ways to travel" spanning "16 countries."

            "It's a wonderful world if you take the time to go around it," the voiceover croons.

            That's a lot of ground to cover, even given the magic of the movies...but how does one make this work on stage?

            Fortunately, the artistic team and 8-member cast at Baltimore's Center Stage are up to the challenge as they bring "Around the World in 80 Days" in just under two hours in the Pearlstone Theater. 

            "Around the World" is presented by The Lookingglass Theatre Company, described in the playbill as "a multi-disciplined ensemble of artists who create story-centered theatrical work that is physical, aurally rich and visually metaphoric." Led by Lookingglass member Laura Eason, who is both the production's director and the playwright of this stage adaptation of Jules Vernes' novel, "Around the World" is all of these things.

            First, it is physical, particularly in its comedy. We are cleverly introduced to the atomic-clock-like precision of Mr. Phineas Fogg's life in London through the recreation of a daily dance between Fogg (Philip R. Smith) and his valet, James (Usman Ally), that begins with a rap on a trapdoor, the emersion of Fogg who glides from morning calisthenics, to dress, to breakfast, to top-hat-cane-and-a-brush-brush-of-the-shoulders before walking squarely at the door, alms to the poor street lady, a rose for his lapel, a visit to the Reform Club, returning home and off to bed "by 10:59 p.m." Performed to a quaint piece of lyrical music, it is indeed a dance that must be performed just so, and is so, three times, until Fogg announces that his tea is not the precise 92 degrees Fahrenheit he required.

            "Shall I post an advertisement for a new valet?" comes James' response.

            "Just so," Fogg responds, and the error of a few degrees sets a series of further changes in motion that will send Fogg on his famed trip 'round the world. 

            The script is a clever one, "aurally rich," as in the exchange between Fogg and his well-heeled-and-harumphed friends at London's Reform Club. Actors Ally, Rom Barkhordar and Patrick New puff, bellow and blow their cheeks out with the appropriate Victorian era indignation as Fogg dares claim he can traverse the globe in precisely 80 days. A wager of 20,000 English pounds is struck and Fogg is on his way, aided by his new valet, the Parisian Passepartout (Kevin Douglas).

            To recreate a trip by "train, steamer, steamer, train, steamer, steamer, train, steamer, train" as Fogg quips, within the confines of a stage most definitely requires "visual metaphors." Scenic designers Jacqueline and Richard Penrod create a set that features a raised row of model trains and boats, displayed in separate boxes atop the stage, each lit as Fogg begins a new leg of his journey. It's a clever way to help the audience chart Fogg's progress.

            At one point in the play, Fogg, Passepartout, and Mrs. Aouda (Ravi Batista), an Indian lady they have rescued from death, seek to escape sword-wielding brigands while atop an elephant. The creative design of the "elephant" was an audience favorite as were other novel touches, such as a specially designed table that allows the actors to recreate the tips-and-turns of a ship at sea, tea cups sliding this way and that, again, in a kind of dance, as Fogg and Mrs. Aouda fall in love.

            A Center Stage production typically means top-flight performances and there is nothing atypical in the work of the ensemble cast to mar this reputation. Joe Dempsey's Inspector Fix somehow manages to combine "clueless" with "honorable," while Douglas as Passepartout demonstrates the acrobatic athleticism of his one-time circus performer character.  Batista is delightful as the lady-in-distress who helps Fogg see that there's more to life than a precise counting of minutes. Ericka Ratcliff is dropping "aitches" one moment as a poor Cockney woman, and the next, is a British civil servant, then a ship captain in Japan. The rest of the ensemble is similarly chameleon-like, quickly transforming from English valet to Reform Club stuffed shirt to Indian guide to sea captain to gunslinging cowboy, just to name a few of the roles they inhabit.

            Will Fogg make it back to London by the stroke of 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21^st, the deadline to win his wager?  Is Fogg really the bank robber Inspector Fix thinks he is? Will Passepartout be able to embrace the simple, quiet life he supposedly seeks when he isn't out sightseeing the world? Can one create a shootout, a snowstorm, a sea squall, a rumbling herd of buffalo, and more all on one stage?

            Of course. It's a wonderful play, it you only take the time go around and see it.

            "Around the World in 80 Days" runs through Sunday, Dec. 20^th at Center Stage's Pearlstone Theater, 700 North Calvert Street. Tickets range in price from $10 to $60 and are available at www.centerstage.org or call the box office at 410-332-0033.