[Buddha-l] Commodifying Buddhism? Or just monkey biz?

[jkirk]

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/operalivereviews/story/0,,2115625,00.h
tml
 
Totally catchy monkey
Manchester hails a triumph of flying acrobats, Gorillaz sets, Damon Albarn's
music and ancient myth 

Kitty Empire
Sunday July 1, 2007
The Observer 

Monkey: Journey to the West 
Manchester Palace Theatre

A monkey-man stands on a stage in a forest of bamboo, weeping. He has just
been born from an egg hatched from a stone struck by lightning, and,
frankly, as far as excitement goes, life is probably going to be all
downhill from here. He is, as a sage later names him, 'Cognizant of
Emptiness'. 

A fellow chimp asks what the matter is. 'I am worried about my mortality!'
the Monkey wails, as children's cartoon characters in oriental dramas
sometimes do. And with that, the adventures of the Monkey King - a
16th-century Chinese redemption fable that takes in cannibalism, seductive
spider-women, and Shaolin sword-fighting on unicycles - begin.

Pop reviewers aren't normally called upon to assess operas sung in Mandarin.
But this is no ordinary piece of classical Chinese theatre. For Monkey:
Journey to the West is a tumbling, cross-genre, French-German-produced
circus show-cum-quest caper designed by Tank Girl creator Jamie 'Gorillaz'
Hewlett and scored by Damon Albarn, occasionally of Blur (who, incidentally,
are rumoured to be reforming, having coaxed Graham Coxon back on board),
more successfully of Gorillaz, and most recently of the Good, the Bad & the
Queen. So it's a pop job.
Indeed, in interviews, Albarn has said he wants people to think of this as
Gorillaz's latest project, not least because he wants their fans to see it.
Everyone involved in this project - Albarn, Hewlett, director Chen
Shi-Zheng, conductor André de Ridder, the actors, the Theatre Du Chatelet,
the Manchester International Festival - is fishing for kudos outside their
comfort zone. It's all about getting new bums on seats.[E-T-C.]

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