I got a Google alert that the Eastchester Players Club in New York will be doing my show Around the World in 80 Days this weekend.

Yeah, I get Google alerts about my shows. I like to see is there’s anything I need to know about my shows. Like whether I’m having an Off-Broadway production, or being awarded Outstanding Musical, or having a World Premiere. Was that shameless promotion noticeable?

Anyway, when I found the kids at the Eastchester Players Club in Eastchester, NY were doing my show I thought I’d take a look to see what they were doing with it.

What they’re doing with it is blowing it out of the water. It looks like a monumental production. One of the things I love about it is that they have found ways to get as many actors involved in the show as possible. The choice to cast as many actors that will fit on stage was one of the things I set out to do when I wrote it. The script is designed for five actors to play thirty-nine characters. I like the theatricality of that conceit and, let’s be honest, I like the budget of needing only five actors. But I also wanted schools, am-drams, and community theatres to be able to get as many actors involved as possible. Watch the video below at the 0:51 mark and take a look at how many members are at the Reform Club. In the five-actor version there are four members. This one looks like it was free meal day at the Club.

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My play Around the World in 80 Days kicks off the 2014-15 season at the Meadow Brook Theatre this week. It’s a Michigan premiere and runs from Oct 1 – Oct 26. The Detroit Free Press has named it Best of the Best for this upcoming weekend.

I think this is one of the productions that put me in the Top 10 Most-Produced Plays for the 2014 -15 season.

The show is directed by Meadow Brook Theatre’s Artistic Director Travis Walter and the cast includes:

Rusty Mewha as Phileas Fogg

Mathew Schwartz as Passepartout

Ron Williams as Detective Fix

Kara Kimmer as Aouda

Peter C. Prouty as 16 characters

Steampunk

Meadow Brook is going for a steampunk-inspired production. The story lends itself very well for steampunk and has been successfully in the past. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre was very successful a few years ago by going steampunk.

Milwaukee Chamber

Michael Butler directed a steampunk version that was seen at Center REP, Laguna Playhouse, and the now defunct San Jose Rep. (I had nothing to do with San Jose going out of business. I swear).

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Here Lies Love, the fantastic musical about Imelda Marcos by David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim, is returning to the Public Theatre starting March 24th for an open-ended run. My tip of the day is get your tickets now! Last year Here Lies Love was the hottest ticket in New York City and for good reason: it’s terrific.

Here’s what the Public Theatre has to say about the show:

“Within a pulsating dance club atmosphere, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim deconstruct the astonishing journey of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos retracing her meteoric rise from childhood to her subsequent descent into infamy and disgrace at the end of the People Power Revolution. Here Lies Love is neither a period piece nor a biography, neither a play nor a traditional musical but a wholly immersive theatrical event combining songs influenced by four decades of dance music, adrenaline-fueled choreography, and a remarkable 360-degree scenic and video environment to go beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes and explore the true tragic consequences of power and responsibility.”

I was fortunate enough to see it last year and loved every minute of it. It’s a complete theatre-immersion experience. The space (The LuEsther) is set up to look like a disco and fewer than 200 people can fit in at one time. You stand the whole time but that’s okay because you’re dancing, you’re shoulder to shoulder with the actors and you’re having an amazing time.

And my friend Melody Butiu is in it and she rocks it.

You can buy the original concept album on iTunes. The cast album will be released this spring.

And here’s a video from a benefit the cast did for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines a few months ago.

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I’m sad it’s ending. I thought it was a fun production and it seemed word about the show was building.

The show started previews on May 9th and opened on May 30th. So all in all it will have run about five months.

So The Mousetrap, your 60-years, 25,000 performance record is safe — for now.

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“Combining ‘The Amazing Race’ with The 39 Steps, Around the World in 80 Days is a fantastic update of the Jules Verne classic.”

Now I’m pretty sure I had nothing to do with the change but it’s a good change. I think it more accurately describes the show. It sounds exciting.

This isn’t the first time my show has been compared to The 39 Steps. In fact, it’s compared to that show all the time. And it’s not a bad show to be compared to. The 39 Steps is a huge hit, had a great run on Broadway, is still running on the West End, and won a ton of awards. But I do want to point out one thing that Steven Stanley pointed out in his review of the International City Theatre production:

“If this sounds more than a tad like Patrick Barlow’s international smash The 39 Steps, let it be noted that Brown’s play predates Barlow’s by four years.”

That’s right. Predates by four years. Around the World in 80 Days premiered in 2001, The 39 Steps in 2005. So stick that in your Tony, Olivier, and Drama Desk Awards.

Sigh.

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The Russian skaters’ last performance is Sunday September 1. The law firm of Littman and Lutz starts Tuesday September 3.

John and Stephen, thanks so much for all of your wonderful work.

Gary and Matt, don’t screw it up.

I kid. I kid. Welcome to the show.

Seriously, don’t screw it up.

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The show, however, is billed as a “fun frolic.” That description has been in all of the press releases and is prominently displayed at the top of the website. Now I’m sure someone who knows more about marketing than me (which isn’t hard since I don’t know much about marketing) did some sort of keyword analytical study and discovered that “fun” and “frolic” are search engine optimized, or some such techno talk. See? I don’t know much.

But I do know that my show is not a fun frolic. A fun frolic is something  giggly doe-eyed lovers do on a beach. Fun frolic is an Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon beach party film. My show is not a fun frolic.

Over the years, here’s what reviewers have called my show:

A wildly whacky, unbelievably creative, 90-miles-an-hour, hilarious journey!

A giddy global adventure!

A fasten-your-seat belt comedy!

A globetrotting laugh fest!

An antic and hilarious stage tour de force!

Riotous road show!

A magical theatre experience!

High-spirited, fast-moving and flat-out hilarious!

Foolish and wickedly clever at the same time!

A masterpiece of invention and gimmickry!

An all-around inspired romp!

Amazing…spectacular…stunning…magical…hilarious…endlessly inventive…magnificent…!

Pure genius!

Too good to be true, and too good to be missed!

Stupid, silly, humour performed in a clever and witty way!

Polished, fast-paced, unabashedly theatrical!

One of the funniest shows I’ve seen in a long time!

Leave the fun frolic to other shows. Come out and see a “fasten-your-seat belt comedy!”

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I started my day with a wonderful lunch with good friends at the Friars Club. Had a few drinks. Played some pool on the pool table Jackie Gleason practiced on for the film The Hustler. Had pre-show sushi and drinks with my manager. Saw the show. Had champagne at intermission (Are you sensing a pattern here?). Went to the after-show party. Had a drink. Went out and had dinner. Then went to bed. Did not have a drink.

The most amusing part of the evening: Randy Jones, the Cowboy from the Village People, was there. Evidently he comes to the opening of an envelope in NYC. But I have to hand it to him — I think he was in more press pictures than I was.

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