Eighty Days: Strong Music, Weak Musical

Eighty Days should not be billed as "a new musical by Craig Peters based on Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days". This is not a 'musical'--it lacks the necessary plot and unity, and will leave an audience expecting these basics disappointed. Eighty Days is a showcase for Peters' original music to be played and sung, and if viewed from that perspective, it's a show worth seeing.

Opening on a very minimal, shoddy-looking set (a white sheet with a painted Big Ben and a blue sky), we are introduced to Phileas Fogg (Colum Amory), the British explorer who one day decides to have his valet Gitano (Keith Barsky) pack his bags for a trip around the world. With the plot thus taken care of, we can get on with the music.

Nine songs make up the core of this short, hour-and-a-half production, sung against back-drops ranging from a business club in London to the streets of Paris, from China to India to New York City. The small, fourteen-member orchestra, conducted by Steven Huang, gives Peters a rare opportunity to actually see and hear his music come off the page.

Characterized by a rather serious intent to capture the flavor of each exotic locale or scene and watered down by an attempt at showy, Disneyesque flair for the mass palate, each song is performed in neat, self-contained gobbets. Fogg's first number, "A Man Who Likes to Get Things Done," is accelerated from an already brisk tempo to create the sense of rush and meticulousness in which Fogg prides himself; this anal-retention is in direct contrast to the next number, Gitano's "Improvise," which feels more licentious and uninhibited, with a Spanish rhythm. This mood music then gives way to a series of clipped scenes, each with its own song: "Ze Sidealk Cafe" is cleverly lyricized, sprinkled with stock French expressions ("au contraire...laissez-faire...Camembert") and sung individually by chorus members in a cute, Epcot Center-World Show-case style.

A throaty flute chants an Indian melody in "Images of India," while a gong and plucked violin strings give us a good show-tune conception of China. Venturing onto what the program tells us is "Main Street, U.S.A." (another Disney reference), the number "Only One Can Be the Best" sounds like it's being played by an unsynchronized high school band--we wonder if this sound characterizes smalltown America. In an impressive conclusion, Peters presents a charming ballad and Irish jig ("Chasin' the Rainbow"), beautifully sung by the poor Irish immigrant Maureen (Wynne Love). It is exciting to know that all of this music has been written by a Harvard undergrad; too bad we aren't told more about this project in the program.

Other aspects of this 'musical' are not as impressive. The choreography, while intricate and interesting, is either poorly-executed, comes flying out of nowhere, or both. Gitano's "Improvise" dance leaps out at us without warning, backflips and all. We wonder why he is dancing, who the women dancers are, and why he looks so rigid and strained. There is no sense of progression or goal here. Similarly, during the two disjointed Indian dances, all onstage action freezes inexplicably. A rush-hour scene in New York City, however, is choreographed with ingenious commotion, presenting a smorgasbord of traffic, cops, spills, swinging ladders, lost people and a stolen pocket-watch, served up to the show's only instrumental number, a classic, light-hearted rag.

The all-Harvard (except for Gitano) cast serves to sing the music, and not much else; they do very little acting throughout. Colum Amory as Phileas Fogg is characterless at first, but by the end gives some emotional depth to the tight British explorer. Wynne Love as Maureen has perfected her Irish accent, and simultaneously sings and acts with soul. The chorus is unanimated in the background, providing no action or interest of note. The script doesn't allow for the actors to do very much else besides sing, and as the show progresses we are struck with the distinct impression that this is a series of musical numbers with very little to tie them together. Awkward pauses between scenes, instrumental recaps of already-performed songs during set changes, and unfocussed flashes of a projected world map onto a white board (to show us where Fogg ventures next) combine to strike the word 'musical' from our minds, and insert 'musical revue' in its stead.

At the end, Fogg drops his straight-laced lifestyle and starts to dance the hot Spanish number performed in the third scene, throwing all propriety, consistency, and logic to the wind. A balloon holding Gitano comes crashing with great bravado like a deus ex machina through the roof of the stage, and, with a load of Irish children, a Chinese dragon, and a cheerleader, the grand finale is performed as a bewildering spectacle of confusion. Like a ride through "It's a Small World," Eighty Days is choppy but full of energy, disappointing on the order of the musical but impressive as an original accomplishment.