Fela! |
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REVIEW by Willard Manus Registering
ten on the theatrical Richter Scale, FELA! is an earthquake of a musical
about the life and wild times of the late Nigerian singer/showman, Fela
Kuti. After flirting with jazz and pop in London and New York, he found
his groove in 1960's L.A. when he was radicalized by the Black Power movement.
He took his new-found social consciousness back to Lagos and combined
it with elements of funk, rock, rap and pulsing African rhythms (powered
by virtuousic drumming). His name for this new kind of music was Afrobeat
and, beginning in the mid 1970s, you could hear it every night in the
club he started, The Shrine. |
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Fela himself
was arrested over 200 times, not only for openly smoking igbo (grass)
and drinking moonshine, but for his anti-authoritarian songs, songs that
attacked his country's brutal and corrupt leaders, the generals who were--and
still are--on the payroll of multinationals like Exxon, Halliburton, BP
and Shell. Fela also poked fun at his audience, engaged in give and take
with them, lectured them about Nigerian history, the impact of slavery
and imperialism--"What'd the British ever give us but Jesus and gonorrhea?" |
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All this history is brought to life in FELA!, thanks to Sahr Ngaujah (alternate Adesola Osakalumi), who channels Fela with dazzling verisimilitude, infusing the proceedings with his fabulous gifts as singer, dancer and M.C. Ismael Kouyate (from a leading theatrical family in Guinea, West Africa) brings the same kind of pizzazz to the role of Fela's sidekick and fellow-singer, Ismael. Paulette
Ivory, another Brit (FELA! had a post-Broadway run at the National Theatre
of Great Britain), is outstanding as Sandra, an American black nationalist;
ditto Rassan-Elijah "Talu" Green as Djembe-"Mustafa"
and Gelan Lambert as the tap-dancer, Egungun. |
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Peter Nigrini's video projections and Cookie Jordan's outrageous wig, hair and make-up design also help to make FELA! the eye-catching, freedom-loving, soul-pleasing musical it is. (Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave. 213-628-2772, centertheatregroup.org) |