I always thought I'd be a grown up when I grew up

Initially thanks to kittyheaven and subsequently to surfing the BBC's news pages:

MONKEY!
In pictures!
Except journeying to the East, not the West.

I have no idea how they'll cut it down to 2 minutes. It's going to be brilliant, anyhow; the full length show fully deserved its standing ovation, and I can still remember bits of the music.

Very briefly:

The Times got it right; Monkey premieres on the 28th. Tonight was the first full dress rehearsal, and they'd decided to do it in public - hence the first public performance *anywhere* :D

Problems with the subtitles meant there were a fair few WTF? moments, especially towards the end; Mandarin & interpretive acrobatics do not a clear story make.

Otherwise, though. Amazing. The set pieces were incredible - acrobatics, martialarts, contortionists, fire poi that the performers threw up before backflipping across the stage & catching each others'... and all mixed in with bridging sections of Jamie Hewlett anime. The costumes were superb (especially the wire-fu singing starfish and the octopi, and the completely pointless-except-for-decoration giant panda), and overall I'm very glad I have a ticket for the final night.

Of course, having Sandy painted green and Pigsy being even more pig-like than in the series got me into a Very Bad Kermit & Miss Piggy place.

The Armies of Heaven really *were* on rollerblades (although the lower ranks fought on unicycles instead), and Tripitaka really was played by a girl (again). Good grief, (s)he's a whining wet blanket!

Monkey himself was superb. Real attitude, including when he came & sat in the audience to watch a section :)

I have an opening night ticket for Monkey: Journey To The West :) Fifth row back, centre section :) Yes, I *am* smug :)

Sadly, I doubt everyone'll be quite as pretty as they are in Saiyuki, but still; dancing & singing & acrobats & martial artists, oh my!