There?s a new show in town, and it?s trying to bring the indie kids to Lincoln Center. And Chinese Americans. And, by default, Chinese-Americans who love indie music, meaning yours truly. I?m the first to admit when I?m part of a target demographic (see: Portlandia, Bushmills), so I made the trek uptown to see Chen Shi-Zheng?s opera Monkey: Journey To The West.
The production, part of this month?s Lincoln Center Festival, sees Chen recruiting Gorillaz main men Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett to reinvent the classic Chinese folk tale of a monkey tasked with helping a monk recover lost Buddhist scriptures. No matter if you?re unfamiliar with the story--as I was--Lincoln Center promises an audiovisual extravaganza with something for everyone.
There is one hitch. At face value, billed as the Gorillaz opera, Monkey: Journey To The West looks suspiciously like white British people?s latest conquest of another culture. But what?s actually served up is another story entirely.
Oddball pop?s cartoon dream team may be the marquee name, but Gorillaz actually feature less heavily than the musically-inclined crowd might anticipate. In fact, I found myself wishing for more of Hewlett?s work--the first half of the performance features animated video interstitials between scenes, and their notable absence later on makes for some uneven transitions and pacing.
And while Albarn, first of Blur fame, injects some glitchy electronica into the soundtrack, the majority of the arrangements come across as sounding quite traditional. With an all-Chinese cast and a script penned by Chen completely in Mandarin, it?s ultimately the director?s world--he?s just invited Albarn and Hewlett along for the ride.
And what a ride it is. Clocking in at about 100 minutes, acrobats, martial artists, contortionists, plate spinners, and one plucky wire-walker all show what they?re made of. While performers may make the occasional quaver, they?re necessary to remind the audience that they?re well-trained humans rather than an army of robots.
Monkey: Journey To The West is also being touted as fun for the whole family, and while some children?s attention spans may not hold up, the opera seems like a safe bet for any parents who want to expose their kids to spectacular gymnastic feats and basic Buddhist principles. Trying to appeal to everyone is a challenge, but Chen appears to have made it work--the audience on the night I went was diverse in terms of both race and age. But between the indie rockers and the Chinese-Americans, it?s the former that won?t be getting quite what was expected.
[Photo:?Stephanie Berger, More by Katie Chow; Follow Katie on Twitter]
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