There's funny, there's very funny and then there's hilarious.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) production of "Around The World In 80 Days" goes to funny and beyond: It's fantastically funny.

One is tempted to state "Around The World In 80 Laughs," but this comedy delight, through July 12, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, Center Valley, provides more like a laugh or more a minute. With the play clocking in at about 2 hours, not including a 15-minute intermission, that's way more than 80 laughs.

These are no mere guffaws or chuckles, although there are those. These are out-loud laughs.

Director Russell Treyz, who directed PSF's first production of "80 Days" 10 years ago in 2005, lets the five actors, who play a total of 30 roles, loose on the neat set with its clock and watch-gear motif, designed by Bob Phillips and Samina Vieth, with scintillating lighting by Eric T. Haugen and sound effects by Stephanie Hodge. Red lights on a map backdrop track the characters' progress by, train, boat, automobile and elephant, but no hot-air balloon.

The premise of the story, set in 1872, is that Phileas Fogg (Richard B. Watson) has a 20,000 British pound (about $1.6 million) bet with members of the Reform Club (fezes and fun) in Burlington Gardens, England, that he can't circumnavigate the globe in 80 days.

Accompanying Fogg is his valet, Passepartout (Brad DePlanche). On Fogg's trail is Detective Fix (Eric Hissom), who targets him as a bank-robbery suspect. Along the way, Fogg meets and falls in love with Aouda (Anita Vasan).

Also along the way are 16 characters played by Christopher Patrick Mullen.

The play, written in 2001 by Mark Brown ("The Trial Of Ebenezer Scrooge"), exploits the plot points of Jules Verne's 1873 novel (which was the basis for 1956 and 2004 feature movies, which did have hot-air balloons) for comedy. The actors utilize vocal inflections and accents, audience asides and direct addresses, sight gags and physicality (akin to Monty Python's "The Ministry Of Silly Walks") to full effect.

(By the way, in 1988, Monty Python alum Michael Palin completed the journey in 79 days, seven hours for a TV show, "Michael Palin: Around The World In 80 Days.")

Brown's script misses no opportunity for laughs, and neither do the actors, who are especially adept (coupled with sound and lighting effects) at creating the impression of travel by train, boat, automobile and elephant.

Mullen is a whirlwind of energy, changing almost instantaneously from one character and costume to the other, with each, among the 16 roles he creates, distinct from the other. Mullen has a muscular presence that he asserts (as, for example, a British Consul) and represses (Gauthier Ralph), without doing mere caricature or parody. Each is a fully-realized person.

DePlanche, playing two roles, is a master of voices and the double-take. He stretches and bends vowels and letters, to turn words inside out (for instance, he rhymes the second syllable of timepiece with bliss).

Hissom has eight characters to portray, and he makes each memorable (Detective Fix is an indelible presence).

Watson, playing the sole role of Fogg creates a stoic, time-obsessed ("He is exactitude personified," the script states) and utterly dignified character.

Vasan, who has four roles (including that of one who advances the narrative), emerges cocoon-like as Aouda, to present a feminine and fetching stage presence.

The costumes by Amy Best are remarkable in their variety. The dresses worn by Aouda (Vasan) are lovely.

Travel to PSF's "Around The World In 80 Days" to an era of adventure where one laugh after another awaits with every twist and turn of the itinerary.