LEAPING LEGEND: Monkey King performs in an acrobatic fight sequence with Princess Iron Fan (STEPHANIE BERGER)

The monk Tripitaka is played by female Peking Opera singer Li Li.

"Tripitaka in this play is a virgin boy, so the director chose to have an actress play the character in order to better express his innocence," Li told Beijing Review. "Playing this role has been a big challenge for me because, firstly, I must act like a boy; and secondly, I have to abandon the traits of traditional Peking Opera."

Chinese odyssey

Though American audiences are generally unfamiliar with the Monkey tale, the classic adventure reminds many of Homer's Odyssey and other quests.

"Fantastic, it reminded me of The Wizard of Oz," Adam Malone, 37, told Beijing Review. "It had all the characters and they get their reward in the end. It was great."

Malone's favorite character was Pigsy, the lecherous but good-hearted guardian who is captured by the Spider Woman—played by the acrobatic Chen Yijing.

"That was my favorite scene," Malone said. "It was amazing to see [the spider woman] suspended from the curtains above the stage."

Eight-year-old Eli said his favorite character was the mischievous Monkey King.

"It was funny when he would scratch himself and he was really good at fighting," he said.

The action-packed fight sequences and colorful costumes appeal to all ages, said festival director Redden.

"I hope people bring their families," Redden says. "I brought my 14-year-old son and my 11-year-old daughter and they loved it. There is tremendous appeal for children and for adults and they want to see it again and again."

With this newest adaptation of Monkey, an entirely new audience will be exposed to and perhaps inspired by these classic characters. At its heart, Monkey is still Chinese, and the plate-spinning, acrobatics, high-pitched operatics, and kungfu are pure Chinese sensibilities.

"The younger generation tends to think that traditional Peking Opera is rather boring. Entertainment value is admittedly becoming more important in modern arts and culture, and I think this play is a strong attempt to adapt," Li told Beijing Review.

As international audiences are given the chance to see some of these traditional Chinese stories, their popularity grows. Just like the King himself, the tale is immortal and powerful. Even Buddha could not be displeased.

(With Huang Wei reporting from New York City)

The author is a contributing writer to Beijing Review

Email us at: liuyunyun@bjreview.com

The Story of Monkey: Journey to the West

A man-monkey hatches from a stone egg in mythical China and becomes consumed with the thought of his own mortality. He dives into the Eastern Sea to be given a weapon, a magical iron rod, from the Old Dragon King and then flies to heaven to demand to be recognized as a god. When he arrives in heaven he finds and eats some magical peaches that belong to the Queen Mother of Heaven. Incensed, the Queen Mother asks Buddha to deal with the monkey pest.

Buddha imprisons the Monkey King for 500 years, after which he is freed to accompany the monk Tripitaka on a quest to bring back sacred scriptures from India. Also accompanying the group is a pig-man named Pigsy, a straight-laced reincarnated water monster named Sandy and a dragon prince that takes the form of a white horse. The five battle the White Skeleton Demon, the seductive Spider Woman, and Princess Iron Fan before arriving in paradise and receiving their reward from heaven.

"Imagine The Lord of the Rings being done by the Chinese State Circus in the style of House of Flying Daggers, and you are some way toward understanding the appeal of Monkey," writes Kitty Empire, for The Observer.