Monkey: Journey To The West

'Monkey' is the tale of a band of heroes and their adventures as they journey west from China to India to seek enlightenment from Lord Buddha. Through seas and volcano plains, battling demons and princesses, our heroes eventually achieve Buddhahood. It was all very familiar to me and closely mirrored by own journey to India many years ago - except I journeyed to the east, of course. Unfortunately, I did not achieve enlightenment. Or fight demons. But I was attacked by bats in a temple to Kali so that sort of counts...

Yes, I went to see 'Monkey: Journey To The West' at the O2 last night and thoroughly enjoyed the show as it tried to match the original telly series for daftness. Monkey flying through the clouds, being trapped under Lord Buddha's blue hand for 500 years and escorting Tripitaka on his pilgrimage. The staging was excellent, lots of people flying on wires and Kuan Yin (Goddess of Mercy, Queen of Heaven) flying to the stage from the audience. The music was rather variable but worked well with the visuals and the singing was all in Mandarin. It's great fun and a great spectacle! But that Monkey's a bit of a scoundrel and not to be trusted unless you're trussed up by the Spider Princess and need your virginity saving.

It's a nicely paced show but a bit odd in a way since there weren't really any spaces for applause without clapping over the start of the next scene. The audience made up for the lack of clapping at the end with the mass bowing of all the actors, joined at the end by the writers and designers, including Damon Albarn. And that was the downside of the night - it was press night. Not only was it press night, but there was a charity benefit as well.

Call me a grumpy old sod (you'd have every right to) but no-one said anything about it being press or charity night when we booked tickets and neither did they say anything about the restaurant being closed to mere paying customers while the liggers - at least some of them - got slightly sloshed on free booze. Take a look at the website and it says the restaurant opens at 6pm on 12 November, yet it was closed to non-liggers. So why was I sent 3 emails asking me to upgrade my ticket to include a meal in their lovely (but closed) restaurant?

And the place isn't easy to find if anything else is happening at the O2 - last night Kanye West was playing and the place was packed. The only signs directing you to Monkey were on the ground which, rather inconsiderately in my view, were covered by peoples' feet. And when I got there my first impression was that it had been done by someone off that old 'Changing Rooms' programme with black crepe tacked up everywhere to make it look stylish but you know the toilets are just portaloos with black crepe tacked to the outside and you're walking on black boards. The make-believe starts to fail at that point.

Ok, I admit I'm being churlish and they're trying to make it a seemless experience and I can forgive lots, but not the plastic seats covered in black cloth to make them look stylish like the portaloos. Yes, ok, I *am* being churlish. And it's a shame the powerpoint projection of the words in English broke down at one point (and why project to the side of the stage rather than to the top of the stage? it means you're looking away from the action if you read what the songs are about).

O dear. Churlish and a 'arf. Was it meant to be a rock'n'roll experience, man, that I mistook for theatre? Or am I just not getting their vision for it? No, I don't think it's anything like that. The show was great, the setting wasn't. I admit to being put off by arriving and being treated as a second class punter because I didn't have the right wrist-band and I'm sure that coloured the rest of my evening.

Go and see the show - it's great fun. You can even have a traditional foot massage that lasts for 15 minutes if you want. And there's loads of merch including "Buddha beads" for a fiver.