Energetic! Superb! Phenomenal! I could go on using laudable words and exclamation marks to describe this brilliantly directed and choreographed musical about a Nigerian musical icon.
I heard about Fela! earlier this year, even though the musical started off Broadway in 2008 and made its debut on Broadway with the backing of entertainment heavyweights Jay Z, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith in November 2009. A year later it has come to London and everyone seems to want a piece of Fela!
The show started with Rolan Bell as Fela, the small in stature, giant of a man engaging the audience and asking us all to say ‘Yeah Yeah!’ It was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a ‘sit in your seat and observe passively’ kind of show. At one point the audience was asked to stand up and follow Fela and his beautiful and incredibly agile dancers as they did the ‘clock’ dance which involved the Queens (his female dancers who he later ‘married’ simultaneously) showing us how to use our behinds much to our's and his amusement.
Most of the scenes take place at the Shrine, Fela’s club where there is everything in abundance, music, dancing, weed or ibo smoking and beautiful women. The Director, Bill T Jones does a superb job of giving us a glimpse into the life of a man who became notoriously political, denouncing the corruption not only of Nigerian politicians, including military leaders Generals Obsanjo and Buhari but also of the international community, companies like Shell that plundered the wealth of the Nigerian people and propped up oppressive regimes. The influence of his mother who died tragically of injuries sustained at the hands of Obasanjo’s soldiers who raided Fela’s compound is evident throughout this powerful musical.
Rolan Bell who is currently understudy to Sahr Nguajah (who I believe in ‘on loan’ from the Broadway Production) was a pleasant surprise, having appeared in Eastenders as the perhaps forgettable love interest of the character Chelsea, Theo, he was at his best as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. What an incredible British talent! He played the saxophone convincingly, sang amazingly well in between rather long and complex delivery of his lines which were sometimes in Pidgin-English. He was able to improvise effortlessly with the audience taking his cue from the braver theatre-goers who did everything from confess to having spent time in jail to request a drag from his spliff (weed). He even did a good job on the Yoruba and Pidgin pronunciation, apparently even better than Ngaujah according to a Nigerian friend who ‘ought’ to know. If I had a criticism it would be length of the scene ‘Dance of the Orisas’ and the fact they chose a Soprano for the part of Fela’s mum. It didn’t sit well in my humble opinion with the rest of the very Afrobeat tunes but of course that did not take away from the fact that Melanie Marshall who played Funmilayo Kuti is an incredible talent.
It was extremely refreshing to see so much British and International talent, although a good portion of the cast were British, there was also representation from Cape-Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Kenya, the USA, Jamaica and of course Nigeria. The dancers were AMAZING in a word! They moved so effortlessly with incredible precision. My favourite choreography was to the track ‘Zombie’ – it blew me away completely and had the entire theatre giving them a standing ovation. My favourite musical interpretation was definitely ‘Kere Kay’ – overall the show was Superb and without a doubt a Must See!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjxMQqGlB94
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