Back with kung fu lite

Something has happened to the Shaolin Monks. In last year's show Wheel Of Life, and the couple of visits before that, you never doubted that you were watching a cracking display of the kung fu craft with performing monks who spent as much time meditating in their renowned temple in China as they did touring Western theatres.

Admittedly, the show was over-produced by Steve Nolan, best known for the 1998 Miss World event, and there was choreographic input from Darshan Singh-Bhuller, the one-time dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Neither very warrior monk, you have to agree. But it was still a laugh-aloud muscle-and-tumble show, with genuinely jawdropping feats of strength and daring performed by 20-or-so amazing monks.

With Buddha-like smiles, they ran at spears, broke iron bars on their heads, and then made themselves into sword-and-spike sandwiches, with a rack of swords, followed by a monk, followed by a bed of nails, followed by a concrete slab that was smashed with a sledgehammer.

This year the feats are the same, but they now come with more music, more lights, more costumes and four female performers who are just plain feeble. Dressed in yellow, presumably to look like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, they mooch about waving ribbons and looking wishful.

There are also two female percussionists, all girlie curves and waterfall hair, who drummed along to Eye Of The Tiger soundalikes.

And as for the monks ... much of the time they, too, were forced to run around pretending to be air or fire, when you know they'd rather be fighting, or tumbling, or showing off their fine acrobatic skills.

Occasionally you see a spark of the tiger or monkey moves that inspire the ancient kung fu art, of which the Shaolin Monks are the masters. However, they were underused, and the audience looked bored.

Shaolin Monks: Kung Fu Masters Live