The gods in heaven, bent on preventing the journey to the west, have promoted the story that anyone who eats the flesh of this human priest would become immortal. In their 17 year journey from China to India to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures, this motley and troubled band of Protectors of this weak human priest encounter supernatural demons, hostile deities and unspeakable dangers in their mission.

MONKEY is Fred Ho's contemporary adaptation of these traditional stories fused with allegorical and symbolic commentary on the history and struggle of the Chinese American community and Third World national liberation struggles. The musical score is filmic in concept and drives the drama and staging and features Fred Ho's Monkey Orchestra, a unique chamber group of traditional Chinese and western instrumentation with soprano vocalist who sings entirely in Chinese as part of the orchestra. The Monkey Orchestra defies western musical-theater and opera conventions, and is situated ten feet in the air, performing veritably in the "heavens" and not buried as corpses or cadavers in an orchestra "pit."

The music is an exciting, energizing and radical fusion of Chinese folk and musical-theater influences with "jazz", representing Ho's pioneering compositional and performance work to forge a distinctive "Afro Asian New American multicultural music." It is a radical new music beyond western music by combining tempered, non-tempered and variable tempered musics: an aesthetic of transformation to capture the spirit of the changeling trickster. Often performing in concert, the Monkey Orchestra is one of the world's most unique and exciting chamber orchestras and innovative "big band."

What is now the third act, "Monkey Meets the Spider Spirit Vampire Demons," premiered as a pilot-episode in the form of an half-hour children's ballet in San Francisco in 1990, and takes place already on the journey to India. In this pilot episode, Monkey and Pig encounter the spider vampire demons who transform themselves into beautiful siren maidens to lure unsuspecting male travelers for their vampiric feasting. A violent, erotic love story between the uncouth, slovenly Pig and the irresistible Spider Queen, "Monkey and the Spider Spirit Vampire Demons" is an allegory for the impossibility of love to transcend contradictory goals.

Upon the success of this pilot adventure, Fred Ho subsequently composed a prequel episode, "Uproar in Heaven" which begins with Monkey's origin and ascendancy to leader of the monkeys. Born from a rock (lithic and not sexual conception), Monkey is fully grown and possesses tremendous powers and an arrogant personality. Fearing Monkey's great powers and martial arts skill, and Monkey's defiant spirit and disregard for private ownership of property, the ruling class of Heaven tries to bribe Monkey with social mobility and fancy but hollow titles. Their deceptions fail as Monkey learns about not being invited to the gods' banquet. The insulted and angered Monkey proceeds to wreck havoc in Heaven. The gods in desperation call upon Buddha to punish Monkey. Buddha tricks the simian trickster by using Monkey's overconfidence and arrogance. The tricked and deceived Monkey becomes imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years. This episode, which has become Act One, has never been staged.

In 1995, the New York Shakespeare Festival/Joseph Papp Public Theater commissioned Fred Ho to complete this adventure saga and to compose what have become Act Two: The Journey Begins and the final Act Four: The Journey Home with funds from the Commissioning Program of Meet the Composer. With the completion of the four act score, MONKEY has culminated into a three episode serial fantasy action-adventure work as a "living comic book." Acts Two and Three were staged and featured as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music 1997 Next Wave Festival after a pilot development by Mary Sharp Cronson at the Works and Process series of the Guggenheim Museum the year before. Acts One and Four have yet to be staged. The final vision for this "living comic book" is to present all four acts as a three-part serial episodic adventure across three consecutive presenting seasons. Part one would be Act One: Uproar in Heaven (60 minutes, no intermission). Part two would be the combination of Act Two: The Journey Begins and Act Three: Monkey Meets the Spider Spirit Vampire Demons (75 minutes with or without intermission); and Part three would be the conclusion, Act Four: The Journey Home (75 minutes, without intermission).

MONKEY is a living comic book filled with virtuosic martial arts, movement, music and breathtaking adventure. It is a revolutionary epic work for children as young as two years old, and for the most jaded experimental theater goer. It is multicultural music/theater, experimental dance/drama and explosive martial arts ballet all rolled into one. Buckle your seat belts for the ride of your life. And don't worry, the kids will be glued to every moment and forget about their video games, tv shows, comic books and goofy movies. MONKEY is magic.

Commissioned by the New York Shakespeare Festival Joseph Papp Public Theater/Meet the Composer Readers Digest and AT&T Commissioning Music USA Program and The Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center.