I've been reviewing at the New Vic ever since it opened. And in all those years, Around The World In 80 Days has to be the most memorable production I've seen, and it just had to be included in their 40th anniversary season - if only to avoid rioting on the streets if it wasn't.

Following its Newcastle-under-Lyme premiere in 2013, this show has played Manchester, London, New York and Florida; only the pandemic de-railed its progress. Exceptionally, in world theatre today, it doesn't have glitzy sets, big ballads and film star performers. What it does have is heart, soul, intimacy, happiness - and the most wonderful teamwork. Far from being blasted out of our seats, the audience is enticed, warmly hugged and simply told a remarkable story in the most imaginative way possible. I've seen this show three times now and I'd go again at the drop of a top hat.

Jules Verne wrote his famous travel book (adapted here by Laura Eason) in 1872, so we are in a world that is pre-plane, pre-Palin and pre-Portillo - though his chunky Bradshaw's Guide makes a regular appearance.

As you walk in, the theatre is adorned with maps, suitcases and umbrellas. The clock is already ticking, and each favourite moment is then loyally re-presented. It's like meeting old friends at a reunion.

It's a magical (and quite) daring opening, which is replayed three times to underline the metronomic nature of the upstanding Englishman Phileas Fogg's routine life. Even Andrew Pollard repeatedly miming being asleep earns a laugh.

The, by now, legendary set pieces gallop frantically across the stage in quick succession. Railway carriages are created with suitcases and smoke. A hair-raising sledge journey is effected with suitcases and a billowing sheet. An elephant and its howdah are conjured up by an old grey raincoat - and yet more suitcases. By this time the audience believes that anything can be anything.

The consummate clown Michael Hugo - an actor whose expression can silence a pre-recorded seagull - returns to the show as Fogg's valet Passepartout and is as brilliant as ever. His crowning scene in a Hong Kong opium den is a classic combination of rubber-band like body work and absolute cheek. Trying to leave the stage like a crazed caterpillar, he forgets his bowler hat. Of course he implores an audience member on the front row to go on stage and fetch it for him and, of course, she does to howls of laughter. It's pure Goon Show stuff.

When they are not jiggling, shaking and bouncing around the world, the travellers are swaying on a steam ship - holding serious conversations whilst rocking chairs, tables and railings from side to side. As the speakers leave, they run out of actors to continue the brilliant illusion. Be warned that sitting on the front row is rather like being a sitting duck.     

The simple staging is perfectly complemented by a highly sophisticated and spot-on soundscape. James Atherton's urgent, multicultural score is punctuated by Alex Day's cartoon effects. Like the action, the sound is often stereotypical and cliched - and all the funnier for it!

The teamwork is faultless. Eight actors do everything, often playing up to 30 parts each as the story lurches from continent to continent with the aid of countless costume and wig changes.

Director Theresa Heskins is having a hoot all over again with her theatrical inventions. Theresa's famous 'tricks of the trade' are all here present. Her long-distance punch-ups - with her combatants several yards apart - are ingenious and hilarious. The butt of most of the battering is the hang-dog Dennis Herdman, reprising his role as Mr Fix, who mistakes Fogg for a bank robber and chases him round the globe on a pointless quest. Herdman plays the hopeless detective as a down-beaten loser. You can't help but pity him - and you can't help yourself laughing at him.

And Theresa's much-loved joke about throwing documents (and even passports) across the stage in the twinkling of an eye is also faithfully reprised: only (spoiler alert!) this time the elephant joins in.

Actually the whole of this review is a spoiler alert, but it's too late now! And, in fact, it doesn't matter. I would wager that most of the audience last night will have enjoyed the show before. And if you haven't, it's high time you did.

Five stars

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme on Thursday 28 May. Around The World in 80 Days continues to show at the venue until Saturday 20 June.