words yvonne teh

A new musical proves an old classic still creates a travelogue of magic

Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days was published in its original French on January 30, 1873. With a story that begins in London, England, on October 2, 1872, this means that the adventure tale is set – and was written – when clippers like the Cutty Sark still sailed the seas and aeroplanes, mass assembled cars and bullet trains were but the stuff of science fiction. Even the original Orient Express was a decade away from its first journey and Charles Lindbergh had not yet even been born, never mind having flown the Spirit of St. Louis on the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean!

But rather than becoming outdated as the years have gone by, the story of the daring bid by Englishman Phileas Fogg and his French valet Passepartout to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days remains very much in print and has been adapted many times for films, television and the stage. Considered an international literary classic, Verne’s work has become so entrenched among English language readers that, as Andrew Piper, who plays Phileas Fogg in Hong Kong’s ABA Production’s staging, notes, “It’s one of those stories you grow up with, thinking you know very well.”
Indeed, for Matthew Gregory, the show’s executive producer and director, this story by the world’s second most translated author (after crime novelist Agatha Christie, according to UNESCO!) is inspiring on both personal and professional levels. When he first read the French writer’s globe-trotting story, Gregory – who moved from England to Hong Kong in 1996 – developed such an interest in travel that he set out to circle the world before he turned 21. “I didn’t quite make it, as I was actually 21 by the time I travelled around the world for the first time,” he says.

Many people would have been content with that, but not Gregory. Instead, “In 1994 I completed it in just over six weeks,” he says. “A bit faster than Phileas Fogg, but I did use planes!” A year before, he had written a stage play of Around the World in 80 Days. “In 2004 I dusted this off and set to work with playwright Ben Munroe and composer Amuer Calderon to turn text into lyrics and give the show a tempo deserving of a modern audience.”

Although he had seen the possibility of a theatrical adaptation, Gregory thought Verne’s novel and some of its film versions were too wordy, so he replaced the bulk of the dialogue with 15 original songs and 26 musical arrangements. So this version – in which “clocks don’t stop ticking nor does our adventure,” – “really is a musical in the true sense of the word. There’s not too much talking and there’s a lot of action, a lot of moving on. In fact, as an audience member you feel whisked along at quite tremendous speed.”

Perhaps that is necessary, as Gregory aims to tell a story that supposedly takes 80 days in just two hours and 10 minutes – and without making it all feel too rushed, rough or just plain hard to follow. To help him, he has called upon Andrew Piper to bring out “the enthusiasm of Phileas Fogg” and Adam Kelly to evoke “the comedy of his manservant Passepartout”.

A graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Andrew Piper is as English as the archetypal Victorian scientist he will be portraying. The actor sees Phileas Fogg as “a bit of an outsider, an eccentric if you like, with a lot of British reserve”, and admits he began to get a bit of a complex when a large number of his friends, after being told he was playing Fogg, replied, “Oh, that’s perfect casting for you!”

Still, that is not to say he doesn’t see Fogg positively. “Nothing fazes [this highly organized individual] – whatever obstacle or disaster he encounters is dealt with calmly and efficiently,” Piper notes. “I could never be as organized or as methodical as Fogg.” Which he goes on to prove: “Fogg,” he points out, “has whole timetables stored in his head, but I have to write down things like flight times in about four different places to make sure I’m not late for the plane. Oh, and my flat is permanently messy – Passepartout would have his work cut out with me!”

Still, the scatterbrained thespian will have to find some affinity with the stickler for routine, since he says, although other actors may have different approaches, “I prefer to start with the aspects that are similar to my own and build from there. That way, hopefully, the performance is believable and engaging, because it’s rooted in something very personal and honest, however epic or larger than life it may end up.”

In the meantime, in preparing for his role as Fogg’s valet, Adam Kelly – who is Welsh, despite his Irish-sounding surname – knows one thing for sure: “It would be impossible for me to recreate a Jackie Chan version of Passepartout!” That’s not just because Kelly is not a talented martial artist, but also because the Gregory version of the tale is a staging of the original Jules Verne story – unlike the 2004 Jackie Chan movie adaptation that made the valet the hero.

Nevertheless, Kelly admits that he has done a lot of acrobatic training and developed some “pretty cool circus and magical tricks” especially for the part. And the production of Around the World in 80 Days that he is in also does pay due respect to Fogg’s valet. As the actor notes, “At first Passepartout seems to be a bit of an erratic character with fingers in many pies but he soon reveals himself as a great solver of many problems. He is certainly a lot more switched on than he appears.”

Passepartout must be because, as Kelly points out, Fogg finds much to commend in him. “I only I wish I had some of his extraordinary ways of always getting what everyone around him needs,” says Kelly. “No one could get in and out of all the scrapes he gets into without being a very likeable character.” And perhaps the ultimate compliment he can bestow on the French comic comes when Kelly says finally, “As an actor I think my aim is always to please the audience and give them a good time. I feel Passepartout would agree with this and I hope he will be there with me, helping with the magic.”

ABA Production’s presentation of Around the World in 80 Days will runs August 9 to 31 at the HK Academy for Performing Arts’ Lyric Theatre. The Wednesday to Saturday performances begin at 7:30pm, the Wednesday and Saturday matinees commence at 2:30pm while shows on Sunday are at 1pm and 5:30pm. Tickets are $888 to $355 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.