Around the World (musical)

Arthur Margetson as Phileas Fogg

Mary Healy as Mrs. Aouda

Sheet music cover

After he finished shooting his 1946 film, The Stranger, Orson Welles decided to make a musical out of one of his favorite childhood books, Around the World in Eighty Days. He wanted an entire circus on stage, a train running through the West, and had other extravagant production ideas. He raised money from Mike Todd, the producer William Goetz, and the holder of the European rights to the title, Alexander Korda. However, he had no money left for a star cast and used performers who were not well known. According to Charles Higham (writer of a highly critical Welles biography) "Porter wrote the songs far too quickly and badly".[1]^{:228–29, 232}

The show had a cast of 70 and included four mechanical elephants and 54 stage hands. Mike Todd pulled out, and Welles put up his own money. He also borrowed from Columbia Pictures president, Harry Cohn, on a promise to write, produce, direct and star in a film for Cohn for no fee. The result was the 1947 film, The Lady from Shanghai.[2]

Playwright John van Druten described the musical as "enormous fun" and Joshua Logan said it was "fresh, witty, magical, exciting". However, with no story and unclear relationships between the characters, the show closed quickly, with Welles losing his savings, and the investors losing "large sums".[1]

Phileas Fogg bets that he can go around the world in 80 days. Fogg is accompanied by his assistant, "Pat" Passepartout. They are pursued on this adventure by a police officer, Inspector Fix, who is persistent but incompetent. Inspector Fix believes that Fogg has possession of stolen money.

Around the World was a play production that was made Mercury Production by Orson Welles. The show began pre-Broadway tryouts at the Boston Opera House, Boston on April 28, 1946, moved to the Shubert Theatre, New Haven on May 7, 1946, and then transferred to the Shubert Theatre, Philadelphia on May 14, 1946.

The production premiered on Broadway at the Adelphi Theatre on May 31, 1946, and closed on August 3, 1946, after 75 performances.[3]

It was produced and directed by Orson Welles with circus sequences created by Barbette, choreography by Nelson Barclift, costumes by Alvin Colt, set design by Robert Davison, and lighting by Peggy Clark. The show had 38 sets, which Welles asked to be designed in the style of the films of Georges Méliès.[4]^:111

"Some of the more spectacular scenes included a giant eagle snatching an actor from the stage, an authentic Japanese circus troupe, a live elephant, a train crossing the rocky mountains and a troop of Marines", wrote Welles scholar Bret Wood. "Motion picture footage was shot and integrated into the play to heighten its mad, vaudevillian qualities."[5]^:61

Technical problems were largely resolved before the New York opening. Welles performed various roles throughout the play's run, and he once was required to play the lead.[5]^:62 On the last night of the Boston run, when Arthur Margetson lost his voice, Welles read the part of Fogg and an understudy sang the songs. "The audience felt blessed," wrote biographer David Thomson. "It was a spellbinding night, with Welles talking everyone—audience included—through their parts."[6]^:270–271

Although audiences reportedly loved Around the World, its precarious finances—and the theatre's inadequate air conditioning—could not sustain the show through the summer doldrums and Welles was forced to close it. Welles personally lost an estimated $320,000 (equivalent to $4,200,000 in 2019)[7] on Around the World. Due to bad legal advice he was unable to claim the loss on his taxes, and it took him many years to pay the debt.[4]^:395–396

After the failure of the New York production, Welles was keen to stage the show in London, where Alexander Korda predicted it would be a great success, but British trade union rules would not allow the use of the elaborate props and sets built for the American production, and they were burned. The sets proved too expensive to construct again, and the show never again received a full-scale staging.[4]^:109

Critic Lewis Nichols of The New York Times calling the musical "only fitfully amusing", noted that the production "has spared no expense in gadgets and effects. There are movies of the flicker era, a miniature train crossing a bridge ... and desperate men and bold clinging to the rails of pounding ships at sea. In other words, Around the World has the making for an hilarious evening. It does not come off because it lacks unity. There are too many styles fighting among themselves ... the dances generally are miles removed from Mr. Welles' burlesque. Finally, Cole Porter has written an inferior score, the songs being on the usual musical comedy subjects and delivered without the zest brought to the show by its mainstay. … Perhaps the best part of the show is a circus, with acrobats, a rope walker and with Mr. Welles, himself, as the magician."[9]

Life magazine called the show "the most overstuffed conglomeration of circus, magic, movies, old-fashioned spectacle and penny peep shows that Broadway has seen since the days of Barnum's Museum. … For part of the time Around the World is wonderful, noisy fun. But, handicapped by Cole Porter's disappointing music and a slapdash production, it ends up like a Victorian whatnot more cluttered with junk than gems."[10]

After New York drama critic Robert Garland wrote disdainfully that the show had "everything but the kitchen sink", Welles had a kitchen sink brought to him onstage during his curtain speech.[4]^:395[6]^:271

During the show's run, Bertolt Brecht went to see it, and went to congratulate Welles backstage after the show, declaring it to be "the greatest American theatre he had ever seen".[4]^:112

After Welles's death in 1985, critic Stanley Kaufmann recalled seeing Around the World, "his exuberant 1945 Broadway production … The show flopped, but sometimes I meet someone who saw it. Immediately we start to bore everyone else in the room by reminiscing about it."[11]

• During the show's run, Welles was also producing, directing, writing, presenting and co-starring in the anthology radio series The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air. The show's first episode, broadcast on 7 June 1946, was a heavily abridged version of the musical, truncated to meet the radio programme's half-hour format. All of the principal cast participated, and the radio broadcast remains the only recording of any portion of Cole Porter's Around the World score. Songs include "Look What I Found" (Larry Laurence, Julie Warren), "There He Goes, Mr. Phileas Fogg" (Arthur Margetson) and "Should I Tell You I Love You?" (Mary Healy).[12]
• The "Lost Musicals" series presented a concert version at the Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, London, in June–July 2007.[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Around the World (musical).

• Around the World at the Internet Broadway Database
• Around the World production, songs, and plot at sondheimguide.com