2010′s Musical Thoughts #2- Fela!
Fela! opened on Broadway on November 23rd, 2009 (it also was part of the 2010 Tony Awards so I’m counting it.) Fela! is a jukebox musical about the life of Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti, who remains a relatively obscure figure to the American music industry even after this. The musical is not only a biography of Fela’s folk-hero-like life (he was an enemy of the Nigerian government, he ran for president, started his own commune and declared it an independent nation, and left a coffin on the doorstep of the Nigerian president’s mansion in protest after his men killed his mother), but it’s a history lesson of the Afrobeat music genre (which Fela helped originate). The genre is a mix of traditional West African music and American funk and jazz, a unique and epic sound never seen on Broadway before or since. The show itself is a jolt of electricity. It jerks and pulses at its own unique beat, never dropping from the heights of its insane energy and raw openness (even in the slower moments). The show is so intense that star Sahr Ngaujah had to have an understudy at every other show (there’s even two OBC albums. One with Sahr and one with understudy Kevin Mambo). All this builds into an incredible show that more people need to know, about a legendary man that needs more recognition today.
