"Journey to the West" follows an episodic structure. That means there are new adventures coming up in quick succession, so if you don't like the one you're in, wait five minutes. But the play runs an interminable three hours, putting an impatient audience on a long car trip and provoking us to question "Are we there yet?"

Adapted by Mary Zimmerman from a 16th-century Chinese novel, the story sends Tripitaka, a young Buddhist monk, (Ryan Sutherlan) on a quest to obtain holy scripture scrolls from India. Like Dorothy on her way to Oz, he picks up three sidekick disciples: the Monkey King (Joshua Weldon), a Pig (Spencer Moon) and River Ogre Sha Monk (Leslie Daniel Griffin). If there is a figure behind the curtain that helps them reach enlightenment, it might be Guan-Yin (Sami Akuna/Cocoa Chandelier).

Director Paul Cravath staged Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses" in a past season at Leeward Community College and is the first director other than Zimmerman to stage this play. While "Metamorphoses" had its characters splashing about in a shallow pool of water, "Journey to the West" has them performing gymnastic routines while dangling in the air from fabric.

The play suits the go-for-broke style that we've come to expect from an LCC main-stage production. While lines aren't always intelligible and the evening would profit by cutting a full 60 minutes, its showmanship and energy are undeniable. Tension between ceremonial and uninhibited elements adds to the dynamic.

Set designer Donald J. Ranney, Jr. gives it on a formal, white box set flanked by red columns and black boulders and pocked with trap doors. Costume designer Cocoa Chandelier blends traditional and fantasy garb into a colorful mix, accentuated by broad makeup and hair design by Selena Nagaoka. Composer and sound designer John Signor uses live and recorded music and Tony Pisculli's fight choreography adds punch.

Choral singing and chanting, poetry and sermonizing share the stage with broad comedy when two male characters become pregnant from drinking enchanted water. Ritual ceremonies mix with back-flips, while a dragon boat glides by and the main character discovers his own corpse floating in a river of billowing silk.

Action sequences work best, followed by comic touches — like the pantomime of what happens to people standing in a small boat when someone jumps in or out.

But there is unfortunately too much in this production that does not excite or make us laugh. The young monk sees the world and finds enlightenment — and those allegorical parts move too slowly or not at all.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek has been reviewing theater since 1973.