Summary

Set in contemporary New York, Mister Monkey tells the story of a derided off-Broadway production of a children’s musical, showing the direct and indirect influence the show has on the lives of the cast of the show and the author of the book upon which the musical is based. It also tracks the show’s effect on various audience members including a grandfather and his grandson and a waiter from an exclusive restaurant.

The Prelude is a page from the children’s book Mister Monkey, which gives the backstory of the book’s monkey protagonist. A New York woman named Mrs. Jimson moved to Africa to study monkeys and became very close to a particular family of monkeys. Mrs. Jimson died trying to protect the monkey family from poachers and young Mister Monkey was left orphaned when his monkey parents were also...