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Cardboard hero
"Fela!' at Academy of Music (1st review)
Steve Cohen
It seems churlish to criticize a show like Fela! Who wouldn't, after all, cheer a proponent of freedom and a protester against tyranny?
The real Nigerian named Fela Anikulapo Kuti became famous first for his catchy music, then as an advocate for human rights in opposition to his nation's rulers. He formed a polygamous commune he called the Kalakuta Republic, which declared its independence from the Nigerian state. Nigerian troops attacked Fela's compound in 1977, severely beat him and killed his mother.
As a display of exciting singing and dancing, Fela! is supremely entertaining. And as a showpiece for the charismatic Adesola Osakalumi in the title role, and the rich-voiced Melanie Marshall as his mother, it's worth seeing.
But Fela! attempts more.
The show purports to be a gathering at Fela's club, the Afrika Shrine, in the Nigerian city of Lagos during his last night before fleeing his native land. The audience is carefully manipulated into a spirit of empathy. Osakalumi asks the audience to stand and move as he instructs them. He tells the audience the words he wants us to call out.
This was intended as inspiration. I got the eerie feeling of Jim Jones instructing his cult followers to drink the Kool-Aid in Guyana.
Authentic African?
Fela announces that his mission is to save Nigeria and all of Africa. But Africa is a diverse continent with many cultures and warring factions, and Fela was never its sole embodiment.
Fela's Afrobeat music itself is an idiosyncratic hybrid that's far removed from indigenous African music. He developed it as he traveled the world, using elements of jazz, funk, psychedelic rock and African rhythms. That's well and good, but it contradicts the show's underlying notion: that Fela personifies authentic African culture.
The title character speaks of his "cause," and we see placards attacking corruption and corporate imperialism, but we aren't given specifics about what he's for until the finale of Act I. Then we see a joyful celebration of marijuana. Surely that's not what Fela's movement was all about.
Later in the show, the title character marries 27 women in a joint ceremony. This joyous presentation seems at odds with the historical record of complaints about Fela's treatment of women. Like many another showbiz celebrity, he apparently abused drugs and women freely.
Echoes of Masekela
Fela! remains an exciting experience nevertheless. The direction and choreography by Bill T. Jones was energetic, although I wish he'd used distinctive and colorful dances of various African tribes such as the Masai, Datoga and Hadze in addition to his own steps, which tended to get repetitious.
The instrumental music by the on-stage band was exhilarating. Its far-ranging brass section sometimes awoke echoes of Hugh Masekela (who played with Paul Simon and The Byrds) and Maynard Ferguson (who got his start with the Stan Kenton band).
At the show's conclusion, Fela chooses to remain at his shrine in Africa— unlike the real Fela, who performed around the world throughout the 1980s. The production discloses nothing about his life between 1979 and 1997, when Fela died of AIDS.
Musical theater isn't history, of course. But if Fela! were more forthright about Fela's contradictory personal life and his cosmopolitan cultural tastes the show might have contained the element it most sorely lacks: a dramatic story about a genuine human, as opposed to a hagiography of cardboard hero.♦
To read another review by Judy Weightman, click here.
The real Nigerian named Fela Anikulapo Kuti became famous first for his catchy music, then as an advocate for human rights in opposition to his nation's rulers. He formed a polygamous commune he called the Kalakuta Republic, which declared its independence from the Nigerian state. Nigerian troops attacked Fela's compound in 1977, severely beat him and killed his mother.
As a display of exciting singing and dancing, Fela! is supremely entertaining. And as a showpiece for the charismatic Adesola Osakalumi in the title role, and the rich-voiced Melanie Marshall as his mother, it's worth seeing.
But Fela! attempts more.
The show purports to be a gathering at Fela's club, the Afrika Shrine, in the Nigerian city of Lagos during his last night before fleeing his native land. The audience is carefully manipulated into a spirit of empathy. Osakalumi asks the audience to stand and move as he instructs them. He tells the audience the words he wants us to call out.
This was intended as inspiration. I got the eerie feeling of Jim Jones instructing his cult followers to drink the Kool-Aid in Guyana.
Authentic African?
Fela announces that his mission is to save Nigeria and all of Africa. But Africa is a diverse continent with many cultures and warring factions, and Fela was never its sole embodiment.
Fela's Afrobeat music itself is an idiosyncratic hybrid that's far removed from indigenous African music. He developed it as he traveled the world, using elements of jazz, funk, psychedelic rock and African rhythms. That's well and good, but it contradicts the show's underlying notion: that Fela personifies authentic African culture.
The title character speaks of his "cause," and we see placards attacking corruption and corporate imperialism, but we aren't given specifics about what he's for until the finale of Act I. Then we see a joyful celebration of marijuana. Surely that's not what Fela's movement was all about.
Later in the show, the title character marries 27 women in a joint ceremony. This joyous presentation seems at odds with the historical record of complaints about Fela's treatment of women. Like many another showbiz celebrity, he apparently abused drugs and women freely.
Echoes of Masekela
Fela! remains an exciting experience nevertheless. The direction and choreography by Bill T. Jones was energetic, although I wish he'd used distinctive and colorful dances of various African tribes such as the Masai, Datoga and Hadze in addition to his own steps, which tended to get repetitious.
The instrumental music by the on-stage band was exhilarating. Its far-ranging brass section sometimes awoke echoes of Hugh Masekela (who played with Paul Simon and The Byrds) and Maynard Ferguson (who got his start with the Stan Kenton band).
At the show's conclusion, Fela chooses to remain at his shrine in Africa— unlike the real Fela, who performed around the world throughout the 1980s. The production discloses nothing about his life between 1979 and 1997, when Fela died of AIDS.
Musical theater isn't history, of course. But if Fela! were more forthright about Fela's contradictory personal life and his cosmopolitan cultural tastes the show might have contained the element it most sorely lacks: a dramatic story about a genuine human, as opposed to a hagiography of cardboard hero.♦
To read another review by Judy Weightman, click here.
What, When, Where
Fela! Music by Fela Kuti; directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones. Through March 25, 2012 at Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts. (215) 893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway.
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