It has been an Oscar-winning movie, one of the best-selling adventure stories of all time, a video game, a board game, a major event in American journalism and now, once again, Jules Verne’s, Around the World in 80 Days, takes to the stage. Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre company has a new version for the stage and the fun is never ending.

Ensemble member Laura Eason took on the jobs of adapting the book for the stage, directing the production and playing some of characters Phileas Fogg encounters as he travels around the world. Her adaptation is witty, clever, fast-paced and endlessly entertaining. This new adaptation takes its place among very few stage adaptations, an amazing fact as this book was published in 1873 and was an instant sensation. It has never been out of print.

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was the father of science fiction. With the completion of the Suez Canal and the Transcontinental railroad in the U.S. in 1869, suddenly getting around the world in 80 days seemed possible. With the 1870 around-the-world trip of American George Francis Train, who claimed an 80-day trip with shaky documentation, all the world needed was the storyteller. Verne’s tale used George Train as the model for his Englishman, Phileas Fogg and he, of course, had to have a fellow Frenchman on the trip, so his valet, Passepartout, was French.

In 1889, Joseph Pulitzer and his New York World, sponsored a superbly documented around-the-world trip in 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds, by ace stunt reporter Elizabeth Jane Cochran, known to the world of journalism as Nellie Bly. With newspaper circulation of these stunts going through the roof, George Train was not to be outdone by a 25-year-old woman. Later in 1890, (Bly’s trip finished in January of 1890), he documented a trip in 67 days and 12 hours. The world had shrunk, but interest in this story would never diminish.

In 1956, Verne’s story resurfaced with that year’s Best Picture of the same name. Screenwriters John Farrow, S. J. Pearlman and James Poe also won an Academy Award for their screen adaptation. In 2003, Chicago’s own Lifeline Theatre company, on a commission from the French government, created one of the first really stage-worthy versions of the story and, now, Laura Eason has added her own to this distinguished company. Her special literary qualities as well her directorial excellence makes this latest edition a very fine addition to the ways an audience can appreciate a literary classic.

Her cast of Philip R. Smith (Fogg), Kevin Douglas (Passepartout), Ravi Baitista (as the Indian princess) are as wonderful as the material. But special mention must go Joe Dempsey as Inspector Fix whose impish humor almost steals the show from a fine ensemble. Moving these fine actors around the world on a stage is not easy and here the scenic design team of Jacqueline and Richard Penrod and the properties design team of Stephen D. Barkley and Galen Pajeau really excel. You have to see the elephant and prairie schooner to believe it.

You have until June 1 to go “Around the World 80 Days” and your adventure begin and ends along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile at 821 N. Michigan at the old pumping station. Check out: www.lookingglastheatre.com, or call 312-337-0665. Hey, don’t look for the famous hot air balloon you remember from the film, it’s not in the book or on stage.