Since the premiere of my show Around the World in 80 Days, I’ve had to constantly deal with two misconceptions about the play:
1. There’s a balloon in the story.
2. The leading character’s name is Phineas.
It got to be so much for me that my playwright’s notes for The Colony Theatre’s production of the show addressed both of these misconceptions. So I was really excited to see a reviewer admit her naivete on both of these issues:
“I was embarassed enough that I had never read Verne’s book or seen the movie, but to discover that I had believed all these years that the leading character’s first name was Phineas really made me feel like a dolt!”
“As for that balloon, I was a tad disappointed when it didn’t make an appearance – mostly because I was eager to see how the effect would be handled on stage – but I am all in favor of stage adaptations of literature that cleave more closely to the book and don’t allow themselves to be swayed by cinematic retellings (The Wizard of Oz!)”
Yeah, suck it Wizard of Oz!
