Around the World In 80 Days
Reviewed by David Kashimba
Photo by Eric Chazankin

 Around the World In 80 Days, now playing at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, is adapted for the stage by Mark Brown from the novel by Jules Verne. It’s nothing like the old movie with David Niven. That’s right there is no balloon in the play or the novel. But there are plenty of laughs as this high-energy cast explodes on the stage with an almost slapstick verve.

The play reminds me of that adventurous British comedy Bullshot Crummond. Like Bullshot it has a British hero (Paul Huberty) who doesn’t mind stopping along his adventurous around the world journey to save a fair damsel (Jessica Scalise) in distress. It also shows what great comedy can come out of a very minimal set and props. It forces the actors and director to become very creative and innovative. When you’re creating an elephant out of a gray jacket sleeve and a few boxes it behooves you to make it a very funny creation that keeps the audience laughing.

Different from Bullshot is a second hero – a French servant (Tim Giugini) who saves the day on more than one occasion and a bumbling detective (Mark Bradbury) who plays several roles. But Dodds Delzell holds the record in this play for changing his character over 15 times, each one very entertaining.

All in all it’s a fun night of theatre that you can bring the whole family to. If you’ve never been around the world let the actors from the 6th Street Playhouse take you on an 80 day adventure that is so much fun it will only seem like two hours.

For tickets or more information call (707) 523-4185 or visit www.6thstreetplayhouse.com.

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