Today there are not one but two openings of my play Around the World in 80 Days. The first one (it being on eastern time) is at The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY. My good friend, Mark Shanahan, who directed the recent World Premiere of my play Tom Jones at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, FL is reprising his role of Phileas Fogg. Mark was previously in a production at the Westport Country Playhouse and was terrific.

The second opening tonight (it being on central time) is at the Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro, MN. This production is directed by my good friend Alan Bailey. Alan and I were interns together a lifetime ago at the McCarter Theatre. We had a blast there and were just reminiscing about our time there. Alan co-wrote Smoke on the Mountain but what’s even more amazing is he is a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion and multi-tournament Jeopardy veteran. He’s also one of the few humans to defeat IBM’s computer Watson in a Jeopardy match and holds the record for beating that fearsome son-of-a-bitch computer by the biggest margin of any player. So he’s pretty much an idiot.

And this will be the first time in a long time when I will see productions of my show. I usually don’t see any more productions but both the Hangar and the Commonweal have invited me to see the shows and then do a talk-back/symposium after the shows. So right now I’m in Ithaca, about to see the opening at The Hangar. In a few weeks I’ll be in Lanesboro for the Commonweal production.

Thanks for doing my show and break bones everyone.