Fela! (The SOB Review) - Eugene O'Neill Theatre, New York, NY
Fela! (The SOB Review) - Eugene O'Neill Theatre, New York, New York***1/2 (out of ****)Almost as audaciously as the late Nigerian
Afrobeat pioneer and political activist
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti declared his commune as the
Kalakuta Republic,
Bill T. Jones'
Fela! dares to dream its own stylized mantle of "most original new musical on Broadway."
The verdict? I'd be hard pressed not to say yeah-yeah!
It's exactly that and so much more, empowering
Fela! to stake its rightful claim without being excessively hyperbolic. Infused with the rascally Kuti's radicalism and rhythms, this revolutionary tuner is almost all originality, with little artificiality.
Now that I have your attention, let me explain.
In what has to be the most transcendent musical to descend upon a Broadway stage in years
, Fela! envelopes the senses as soon as you walk into the
Eugene O'Neill. The theatre has been transformed by
Marina Draghici's overflowing scenic design into Kuti's nightclub
Shrine. Kuti's own music is already funking up the place so vitally (compliments
Aaron Johnson's taut musical direction) that it's hard to resist tapping your toes the moment you arrive.
Surely, this is what director and choreographer Jones intends. For
Fela! is clearly a labor of love, and it shows in this most unusual of jukebox musicals that simply defies description and exceeds all expecations.
In co-writing its book with
Jim Lewis, Jones has conceived a living, breathing, pulsating and truly magical musical monument to a man most in America may never have heard of. In telling Kuti's story and showcasing his infectious music, it's a tribute to Jones that he makes us feel
Fela! so deeply.
While enjoying what seems to be a pre-show jam-session playing Afrobeat music, lithe dancers begin to assemble, both in the audience and on-stage in a jubilantly choreographed celebration that's a joy to behold. In fact, Jones may as well start making room now for the Tony he'll likely receive for a second and infinitely more deserving choreography honor. Before you know it, there's a full-fledged concert party taking place with Kuti himself in control (the role of Fela Kuti alternates performances between
Sahr Ngaujah and
Kevin Mambo; the mesmerizing Mambo performed the afternoon I attended).
But this isn't a mere concert staging. Kuti reveals that this is his final time performing in the Shrine. As he looks to an image of his beloved murdered mother Funmilayo (a haunting, stirring
Lillias White), she returns to life via
Peter Nigrini's stunning projection design (one, I might add, that makes the best case yet for a new Tony category). Without missing one single Afrobeat,
Fela! morphs into the story of Kuti's life.
During a late-sixties stay in the United States, Kuti finds himself under the influence of the enchanting Sandra (a terrific, if underutilized
Saycon Sengbloh), who personifies the fusion of American funk and Black Panther politics that would propel him forward in Nigeria. Once Kuti's returned home, his music emboldens him to challenge the Nigerian government's corrupt regime.
Through his music that at once stirs and incites, Kuti becomes an oft-arrested and tortured hero to Nigeria's poor. As his quixotic run for the presidency suggests, he rebounds from each confrontation with the law seemingly stronger and even more willing to take on all comers including big corporations that fund his government's wicked ways and the West for its complicity.
If
Fela! becomes a bit preachy at times, it succeeds in narrowly avoiding a completely hagiographic depiction of Kuti by taking copious note of his affinity for weed and women (he had 27 wives in all). Yet in the show's rousing finale in which the myriad afflications devastating the African continent are symbolically laid to rest, Jones only alludes to the
deadly disease that would take Kuti's life in 1997. While the scene is chilling and even uplifting, it represents a missed opportunity to truly triumph with maximum impact.
Nevertheless,
Fela! is one of the most compelling and affecting musicals you're likely to see this or any other year. As an equally entertaining piece of musical theatre, I can't fail to strongly recommend this captivating and worthy show. Long live
Fela!This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Bill T. Jones, Broadway, Fela, Kevin Mambo, Lillias White, Musical, Sahr Ngaujah, Saycon Sengbloh, The SOB Review
Revolutionary New Musical Fela! Stirs Broadway
"Come for the music. Come for the dancing. Come awaken your soul."So beckons
Fela! -- a show that dares to call itself the "most original new musical on Broadway." The tuner begins previews tonight at the
Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
Fela! is based on the life of the late Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and political activist
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (who died in 1997) and features his provocative music, along with additional lyrics from
Jim Lewis.
Sahr Ngaujah recreates his Obie-winning turn in the title role, although he alternates performances with
Kevin Mambo.
During its earlier 2008 incarnation at Off-Broadway's
37 Arts Theatre,
Fela! won both critical praise and honors, including three Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Choregraphy for director
Bill T. Jones (who earlier earned a Tony for his choreography of
Spring Awakening) and Outstanding Costume Design for
Marina Draghici.
Influenced by the Black Panthers during a late-sixties stay in the United States, Anikulapo-Kuti returned home to Nigeria and challenged the government's corruption through music the ruling party found highly incendiary. He also organized his own self-declared
Kalakuta Republic, a commune which was later burned. After forming his own political party, Movement for the People, Anikulapo-Kuti tried putting himself forth as a presidential candidate, only to be quashed.
At one time, Anikulapo-Kuti also had 27 wives, although he later declared "marriage brings jealousy and selfishness."
Sadly, the musician-activist would ultimately die of AIDS in 1997. His funeral would attract over 1 million mourners.
Bill T. Jones was clearly inspired, thus conceiving and writing the book for this musical. The
Fela! Web site described the production as follows:
If you like soul-stirring rhythms, compelling real-life stories and passionate choreography, you will love Fela!
Fela! is a new musical directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, in which audiences are welcomed into the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), Fela! explores Kuti's controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician.
Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s visionary staging, Fela! is the most original new musical on Broadway.
Currently slated with an open-ended run, the intriguing Fela! opens on November 19.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Bill T. Jones, Broadway, Musical, Off-Broadway, Previews, Transfer
Across The Pond, Critics Across The Board On Spring AwakeningA funny thing happened on the way to London for Broadway's recently departed
Spring Awakening. As presented at the smallish
Lyric Hammersmith pearl of a theatre that's a distant dream from the West End, the London mounting includes a cast of age appropriate teens, along with two requisite adults filling all the parental and teacher roles.
Last week, the tuner enjoyed its opening night, or first night as they call it across the pond. Critics ranged from effusive praise to jaundiced criticism.
Answering "Yes," when asking if the "canny production route" by "London's powerful cast" works,
Variety's
David Benedict offers mostly thumbs up: "Having a cast so close in age to the characters yields enormous dividends. This is an urgent show about the dangers of naivete. Instead of watching more experienced actors shed years of cynicism -- and occasionally add a little too much angst -- this cast glows with innocence. The one downside is that not all of them are experienced enough to take roles created elsewhere and make them fully their own. That's most noticeable in the dance. When they're going full tilt at
Bill T. Jones bass-line-hugging choreography, the actors are energized with all the requisite rage and zest. But there are moments when Jones' highly articulate gesturing feels performed rather than embodied."
Calling it a "postmodern collision of styles that works brilliantly,"
Michael Coveney of
The Independent praises in his five star review: "Of course, if you didn't like
Hair or
Rent, then you won't want to be told that this is the best American protest rock-musical since either of them. But you may respond to the freshness, attack and sheer lyrical beauty of
Spring Awakening which knocks out a great roster of indie rock songs against the essential narrative poignancy of
Frank Wedekind's 1891
German Expressionist play about adolescent sexual fever and friendship.... It's so simple, yet so strong and assured in the staging. There's more innocence and less mania than there was on Broadway, which suits the beautiful downbeat songs as well as the explosive items."
Concluding that "It's a blast to see this show whatever age you happen to be. But to see it as a teenager must be very heaven,"
Charles Spencer of
The Telegraph awards five out of five stars: "Here it is at last, the answer to one's prayers - a new musical, bursting with ambition and achievement, that doesn't owe its existence to a back-catalogue of pop hits or an old movie....
Michael Mayer directs a superbly compelling production, set in a 19th century gymnasium illuminated by 21st century multi-coloured neon. The choreography of Bill T. Jones conjures the writhing frustration of adolescence and the whole show seems to ache with love and throb with lust."
Deadpanning that "The show gives tongue to adolescent pain, paranoia, self-pity and sexual confusion. It gives a bit less tongue to Wedekind,"
Benedict Nightingale of
The Times airs a note of resignation in his three out of five star critique: "As in the original, the show attacks uncomprehending, unbending, grimly puritan adults: which leaves it looking a bit dated in a Britain where the young tend to be knowing, untamed and powerful. Yet the show's big trick, which is to dress the kids as 1891 German teenagers but give them modern pop-rock songs, gives Michael Mayer's fine, spare production its memorable moments.... (
Steven) Sater's lyrics get swamped by (
Duncan) Sheik's music, but that does not matter since they are not remarkable and some of the music, notably a trio involving Melchior and his friends' ghosts, is tuneful and touching."
Lamenting that this
Spring Awakening "charms and beguiles but also smooths over the rough edges of Wedekind's abrasive, expressionist masterpiece,"
Michael Billington of
The Guardian also limits his stars to three out of five: "At times it covers it in a thick layer of sentimentality, as in the quasi-religious anthem that underscores the hayloft love-making of Melchior and Wendla or the soggily climactic paean to 'a purple summer.' But what the music does more often is neuter the despair and frustration of Wedekind's play by providing an emotional safety valve.... The show is very well staged by Michael Mayer and beautifully performed by its predominantly young British cast.... And
Christine Jones's school-gym set is sensationally well lit by
Kevin Adams. There is much in the show to enjoy and it doesn't shrink from the original's scenes of teenage masochism and communal ejaculation. But, through the soft blandishments of its score, it turns a harsh and savage play into a piece of feelgood theatre."
Sniping that "I was let down and left there,"
Nicholas de Jhong of the
Evening Standard pans with just two stars: "Duncan Sheik’s American indie and pop rock music, most of it pleasant but quite unmemorable, exudes a sophistication and assurance that runs counter to the mood of these uptight, ignorant teenagers, with their prim Victorian costumes and grotesque styles.... Such songs as 'Totally F***,' 'The Bitch of Living' and 'Touch Me,' which climaxes with a youth enthusiastically masturbating to a fantasy of Desdemona, veer towards the ridiculous. They all betray today’s rebellious, outspoken manners. It is equally unfortunate that Michael Mayer’s production, adorned with blue neon lights and an ugly brickwalled set, leans towards caricature.... Steven Sater’s unlovely lyrics, on the rare occcasions when the singers can be heard above the eloquent seven-strong band, aided by Mayer’s caricature-prone production, succeed in making absurd rather than sad the sexual growing pains of the show’s key figures.... These brilliantly promising young actors deserve better."
Oh yes, and then there are my beloved
West End Whingers, whose review is in a league unto itself: "If one were a cynic, one might say that this show took a very cynical approach towards grooming its young audience. This is a world in which one adult in 16 (approximately) has any redeeming features at all; the rest are simply cartoon bullies.... Well, of course, there was no end of moping about and what these children most needed was a good slap. In fact in a couple of scenes the generic adults (two actors play all the adult roles between them)
did slap them and Andrew fought hard to suppress a cheer.... Worst of all was an awful lot of quasi rock-posturing by the cast who (like a lot of rock stars) are not great singers, the sound design was muddy and the lyrics (Steven Sater) often (and mercifully) unintelligible."
Nicholas de Jongh and the West End Whingers notwithstanding, it's highly anticipated that this show will receive a West End transfer once it completes its Lyric Hammersmith run on March 14.
UPDATE (2.19.09, 11:25 p.m. EST): Playbill.com has confirmed that Spring Awakening will indeed transfer to the West End. It will begin playing the Novello on March 21 with opening night set for March 26.This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Bill T. Jones, Critics' Capsule, Duncan Sheik, Frank Wedekind, London, Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening, Steven Sater
