My Play Around the World in 80 Days Turns 25

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the world premiere of my play Around the World in 80 Days. It’s hard for me to fathom the popularity of my show. I was going to be happy to get one production, but it has become one of the most produced comedies of the past twenty-five years.

What?

I wrote it mostly on a whim, based on an off-the-cuff suggestion from a friend. This was the first script I wrote by myself. I had collaborated on two plays earlier, but it wasn’t for me, so I headed out on my own.

I worked on it for about a year, wondering where—or if—I would get a production. Through a series of unexpected events, I ended up with one at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The show opened on September 15, 2001.

Yes, four days after 9/11.

Needless to say, I was filled with mixed emotions. I was thrilled that my play was getting a world premiere. But I was also devastated by the events that had occurred two days before.

And then, one week after 9/11, the anthrax letters were mailed. You know, the biological attack on news organizations and government officials. I must point out that the letters were mailed only a few miles from where I grew up. They were dropped into a mailbox at 10 Nassau Street in Princeton, New Jersey, processed at the USPS regional facility in Hamilton Township, and postmarked in Trenton.

With all that happening, I wondered, along with the theatre, whether people would come out to see the show.

And they did. Mostly thanks to the reviews. Almost all of them said some variation of the same thing: We all need to escape the horrors and anxiety of current events. Go see Around the World in 80 Days. You’ll laugh, and for two hours you’ll forget what’s happening in the world.

Soon, more theatres produced it. I think mostly so people could escape for two hours. Also, the play is fairly inexpensive to produce. It has only five actors. And I like to think it’s a darn good script.

From there, it took off. Two Off-Broadway runs. Twice on American Theatre magazine’s list of the ten most-produced plays. It has been produced in the United States, Canada, England, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, India, and Bangladesh. A production is scheduled for Slovakia. It’s won countless awards. Not one year has gone by without multiple productions somewhere in the world.

What is really wonderful is that I have made some very good friends because of it.

It’s been a crazy twenty-five years. Thank you to every theatre that has put its faith in the script. Thank you to Dramatic Publishing for publishing it—and not that other version that was floating around. And thank you to everyone who has come out to see it and not talked smack about it.