16th March, 2011
The countdown has began for the arrival of the performance of FELA!, the hit Broadway musical about the life and music of Nigerian performer and political activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti at the prestigious New Expo Centre, Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria on April 20-25, 2011.
Described by the Times Out New York as more than a musical and an ecstatic phenomenon, FELA! opened and triumphed at London’s Royal National Theatre for a three-month sold-out run. That production was nominated for three Olivier Awards, London theatre’s highest honor, including Best Musical, Best Actor (Sahr Ngaujah) and Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones).
The cast of Fela! have been evoking his name and depicting his extraordinary story nightly for the past 15 months at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on New York’s Broadway. Until it’s closing at the beginning of January the Tony Award-winning production, directed and choreographed by Bill T Jones, had been seen by some 400,000 delighted theatre-goers and enthusiastically saluted by the world’s press.
The Broadway production has received numerous awards, press coverage worldwide, high profile attendance (First Lady Michelle Obama, Kofi Annan, Spike Lee, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Denzel Washington, Beyoncé, Harry Belafonte and countless others) and financial backing and personal involvement of Sean “Jay Z†Carter and Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith.
The aim of FELA! in Lagos is to unite and connect Africans in spirit and unity, to celebrate a globally acclaimed Nigerian musician and to serve as a catalyst for cultural revival in Nigeria, said one of the organisers.
Telling the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms and cutting lyrics ignited the spirit of empowerment and cultural awareness in a generation, the cast of the Fela musical are overjoyed and excited at this opportunity to ‘bring Fela home’.
—Funsho Arogundade
