![]() ![]() Kuykendall's Phileas strides in big, fast steps everywhere he goes, quite oblivious and nonplused to all the hubbub occurring around him, as his loyal servant rushes to avert disaster after disaster and as the hilariously inept but quite lovable Detective Fix keeps chasing him under the guise of being a fellow traveler. Much of the wonder and fun of Mark Brown's adaptation is that only five people are in the cast, with only one (Jason Kuykendall) playing one part as Phileas Fogg. Unbeknownst to Phileas, a daring bank robbery that very day by a gentleman matching his description has occurred, and one bubbling Detective Fix is soon to be hot on Fogg's globe-trotting trail to arrest him (if the home office can ever forward a warrant in time before Phileas hops the next boat to China, or wherever). The master of daily schedules has already outlined an exact route and milestone goals that must be met and off the two head for the first of many trains and boats. Phileas has accepted the challenge and bet made over a game of whist with his aristocratic buddies at The Reform Club that he can actually do so in eighty days, as an article that day in The Times suggests can be done due to new means of modern transportation and a recently completed train route across British-held India. But just as the French butler is settling in to a job where he hopes life will be nice and easy, in pops Phileas declaring that they are leaving immediately to travel around the world in a mere eighty days, taking with them only a couple of shirts each and some necessary socks and underwear. Phileas is a man structured to the minute in his day-to-day life, as his newly hired servant Passepartout soon learns when handed a detailed list of what is to occur when (including a 10:20 a.m. Traversing the globe in 1872, they bring along an audience that is brimming with grins and laughter and that quite apparently by their reactions can hardly get enough of Fogg's near disasters and just-in-time successes. ![]() As a master of directing year-in, year-out laugh-filled, heartwarming shows, Robert Kelley guides a cast of five as they are clearly having the times of their lives. From typhoon-tossed ship in the Hong Kong Sea to bridge-jumping steam train in the Sierras, Phileas makes his way back and forth across the TheatreWorks stage, even having high tea atop a lumbering elephant in India's jungles. In a delightful, fun-packed holiday gift to its audiences, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's production of Mark Brown's stage version of Around the World in 80 Days does highlight many other clever means the adventuresome Fogg employees to race around the globe to fulfill a £20,000 bet. ![]() That means of transportation is never actually employed by Phileas Fogg in the original novel or in the stage adaptation but was added in and became an icon of the multi-Oscar winning 1956 film starring David Niven. Regional Reviews: San Jose/Silicon ValleyĪlso see Eddie reviews of The Millionth Production of A Christmas Carol and Miss Bennet: Christmas at PemberleyĪnyone looking for a hot air balloon while watching Mark Brown's stage adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days will have a long wait.
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