For the last three weeks, Bill T Jones's creation has taken London by storm. It is a slightly different version from the Award-Winning Broadway version of FELA THE MUSICAL with a brand new cast, musicians...only the leading roles of Fela is still there.
Antibalas was the tight musical unit who re-worked and performed the music for the stateside version while the National Theatre production gave the responsability to re-create the intricate music of Fela to the very capable hand of Dele Sosimi, Rob Hopcraft and Idris Rahman from the very slick Afro/Dub top London band Soothsayers.
The London press launch was really buzzing, both Seun And Femi Kuti were in attendance, Marie Daulne from Zap Mama, DJ Rita Ray amongst a few Nigerians celebrities and a kaledoscopic mix of media, industry crowd and other familiar faces. All were there mingling, drinking and dancing...a free party courtesy of the National Theatre production team.
For the gossips: Apparently the London version was a more pan-African cast and 60% of the cast were french-speaking performers of Carribean and African origin: the happy tap-dancer was not part of the Broadway version: Femi Kuti gave his thumbs up to the play saying it was quite an emotional experience....
Fela! was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Bill T. Jones, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Sahr Ngaujah, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Lillias White.
Weither you love musical or not....the FELA production is a real creative "tour de force". Critics will be very quick to point out details and question with sarcasms the possibility to produce a rendition of such a complex, facinating, multi-faceted and seriously iconic charachter in a 2 hour play?
Well, you really need to be darken by negativity to not be impressed by the sheer near-perfect balance between inter-active entertainment, powerful thought-povoking acting , music and dance performance in display while retracing authentic moment of the life of the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick that FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI was.
Because it is the first, it is just the best that it could be and the bar has been set quite high.....So critics are very welcome to create their own version.....more there is...the merrier!
Still doubting?? Watch this clip and tell me you dont want to go and see it...
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/felalondon/
Music is the weapon....Africanize 2011!!
Antibalas was the tight musical unit who re-worked and performed the music for the stateside version while the National Theatre production gave the responsability to re-create the intricate music of Fela to the very capable hand of Dele Sosimi, Rob Hopcraft and Idris Rahman from the very slick Afro/Dub top London band Soothsayers.
The London press launch was really buzzing, both Seun And Femi Kuti were in attendance, Marie Daulne from Zap Mama, DJ Rita Ray amongst a few Nigerians celebrities and a kaledoscopic mix of media, industry crowd and other familiar faces. All were there mingling, drinking and dancing...a free party courtesy of the National Theatre production team.
For the gossips: Apparently the London version was a more pan-African cast and 60% of the cast were french-speaking performers of Carribean and African origin: the happy tap-dancer was not part of the Broadway version: Femi Kuti gave his thumbs up to the play saying it was quite an emotional experience....
Fela! was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Bill T. Jones, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Sahr Ngaujah, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Lillias White.
Weither you love musical or not....the FELA production is a real creative "tour de force". Critics will be very quick to point out details and question with sarcasms the possibility to produce a rendition of such a complex, facinating, multi-faceted and seriously iconic charachter in a 2 hour play?
Well, you really need to be darken by negativity to not be impressed by the sheer near-perfect balance between inter-active entertainment, powerful thought-povoking acting , music and dance performance in display while retracing authentic moment of the life of the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick that FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI was.
Because it is the first, it is just the best that it could be and the bar has been set quite high.....So critics are very welcome to create their own version.....more there is...the merrier!
Still doubting?? Watch this clip and tell me you dont want to go and see it...
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/felalondon/
Music is the weapon....Africanize 2011!!
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