Fela!

Fela!

37 Arts, New York

(212) 560-8912

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The life story of Fela Kuti “can barely be contained on the stage,” said Jennifer Farrar in the Associated Press. The Nigerian native pioneered the musical style known as Afrobeat, which combines tribal rhythms with elements of American jazz and funk. He also bravely opposed the brutal mistreatment of his countrymen by Nigeria’s military regime. Here, a veritable Kuti double, Sahr Ngaujah, embodies Kuti’s fighting spirit through a series of wry biographical stories. For two hours and 40 minutes, the audience is pulled into a fictional concert given at Kuti’s Lagos compound in 1977.

Don’t forget Bill T. Jones’ spectacular direction and choreography, said John Simon in Bloomberg.com. Jones, who recently won a Tony for Spring Awakening, combines “everything from ballet to modern dance, athletics to acrobatics, sensual earthbound wallowing to winglessly winged flight.” The 20 or so lavishly costumed musicians, singers, and dancers are barely constrained by the confines of the stage, and often propel themselves into the audience to rouse members to dance. This participatory approach never feels gimmicky and is “at once overpowering and empowering.”

It’s nearly impossibly for your “basic nervous and circulatory systems” to resist this show, said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. Yet “by the standards of the well-made musical, Fela! leaves a lot to be desired.” The story, as written by Jones and Jim Lewis, feels slapdash, and the hero-worshipping tone often crosses into hagiography. But soaring music saves the day, as “the performance of song and dance allows Western audiences to grasp the complex, culturally layered world that Kuti was responding to.” When everything is working, which is often, “Fela! is a show that melts walls.”