Earlier this week Owen and I had the opportunity to see the mega-hyped MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST at the specially-designed space around the back of the O2.

Now the blurb is playing up the fact that this is a unique experience that starts 90 minutes before curtain-up but my suspicions were confirmed - it's a low-tented foyer with a bar, merch stand and allegedly a restaurant space. I say allegedly as we went on press night and that area was Guest List only.
Oh and fuck you too.

I appear to be the only person who never saw the series which ran in the late 70s - I was like.. working - so I came to the story fresh. I can't say I was particularly gripped by yet another tale of a disparate group of characters taking a journey to find their destiny but then I guess the 400+ year old JOURNEY TO THE WEST might have been the inspiration for quite a few of them stories!

As the libretto is sung in Cantonese they have come up with the whizzer idea of flashing up an English translation. Not above the stage where you might expect it.. but on two screens on either side of the stage! A particularly bad idea as it meant you had to look away from the stage to squint at the underlit text. And of course the subtitles went on the fritz during one of the scenes which afforded much tittering in the peanut gallery.

Much has been made of the spectacular nature of the show but I kinda didn't see anything I haven't seen in Cirque du Soleil to be honest. And for a hero Monkey *is* an annoying shagger. I cannot say I was particularly bothered about any of the characters to be honest.

Sounds like I am putting the blast on the whole show but luckily there was the double whammy of Jamie Hewlett's wonderful designs & filmed links - to be honest I would have been happier with the whole thing being handed over to that medium - and Damon Albarn's score which pushed the five note template into some wonderful sonic areas played by a great set of musicians. It's just a shame it's not particularly memorable. Apart from the lalalalala bit which I reckon he filched from Minnie Ripperton's "Loving You".

See it for the visuals, hear it for the score.