If you want to offer yourself a nice and exciting present,
you should go to theater 37 Arts to see “Fela!,” the exhilarating musical about
the life and music of Nigerian musician and human rights activist Fela
Anikulapo Kuti.
Directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones and several
collaborators, the show manages to harmoniously combine Afrobeat music with
sensual dancing, on the background of military government oppression.
Jones shows once more that he definitely deserved the Tony
award he received for the choreography of “Spring Awakening.”
Sahr Ngaujah brilliantly portrays Fela, the Nigerian
multi-instrumentalist and composer who never stopped fighting against
injustice.
Fela was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, to a middle-class
family. His mother was a feminist and participant in the anti-colonial
movement, while his father, a Protestant minister and school Principal, was the
first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine, but he
chose to study music at the Trinity College of Music. This was a good decision,
as he soon became the pioneer of a style of music known as Afrobeat, a fusion
of American jazz and funk with West African Highlife, which he created while
playing with his band Koola Lobitos.
He wrote songs in which he denounced corrupt politicians,
infuriating them and becoming a hero. He and his followers were often beat up
by the African officials and his mother died after a raid by soldiers in 1977.
Fela died from AIDS in 1997, but he always was remembered as a
revolutionary and rebellious musician. Or, as the musical’s program perfectly
describes him, “Firebrand, Icon, Musician, Composer, Performer and Troublemaker
par excellence.”
The show’s music is performed by Aaron Johnson and his
Antibalas orchestra, with each man playing several instruments (percussion,
keyboards, brass, guitar, tenor and baritone sax).
Brilliant Romanian designer Marina Draghici also deserves
appraisal for the luxuriant, hypnotizing scenery, as well as for the wonderful
and colorful costumes.
