FELA! Comes To Boston, 4/24-5/6

FELA!, the international sensation heralded on three continents, is a provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music exploring the extravagant world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.  FELA!, comes to Boston for a limited engagement, playing at the Cutler Majestic Theatre Tuesday, April 24 through Sunday, May 6. The press opening is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25 at 7 PM.

Critics around the country have been effusive in their praise of the national tour.  The kinetic energy pulsing from the music and dancing of FELA! prompted Ben Brantley of The New York Times to say “There should be dancing in the streets.”  Peter Marks of TheWashington Post described it as “electroshock for the soul” and Charles McNulty added in The Los Angeles Times that FELA! was “the most exuberant musical I’ve seen this season” and “the fusion of his (Fela’s) sound is rapturously celebrated with a pinwheel parade of pelvises” and Time Out gave it 5 stars saying “more than a musical, an ecstatic phenomenon.”

Olivier and Tony Award-nominated actor Sahr Ngaujah will lead the cast of FELA! He is joined by Melanie Marshall and Paulette Ivory, who co-starred with Ngaujah in the Olivier-nominated Royal National Theatre production.  This touring production is a once in a lifetime experience, a glorious amalgam of the original casts of both Broadway and London’s Royal National Theatre. 

A triumphant tale of courage, passion and love, FELA! is the true story of Kuti, who created a type of music, Afrobeat, and mixed these pounding eclectic rhythms (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies) with incendiary lyrics that openly attacked the corrupt and oppressive military dictatorships that rule Nigeria and much of Africa.  Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! reveals Kuti's controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music. 

Sahr Ngaujah and the cast of FELA! have performed in unique places for unique individuals, from St. James Palace for Prince Charles to Fela’s Lagos Shrine for the Kuti family. First Lady Michelle Obama helped lead a standing ovation and Madonna has seen the show twice.   Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Sting, Janet Jackson, Hugh Jackman, Anna Wintour, Bruce Springstein and Robert DeNiro are but a few of the celebrities who have danced in the aisles to the percussive joys of its Afrobeat. 

The production received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, including one for Bill T. Jones for best choreography. Mr. Jones also received the Astaire Award for best choreography and the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. 

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are byMarina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz. 

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, SlavaSmolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson. 

FELA! plays at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston, for sixteen performances: Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 PM (except Wednesday, April 25, at 7:00 PM); Friday evenings at 8:00 PM; Saturdays at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM; and Sundays at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM. Tickets are priced at $23.50 -$123.50. Tickets for FELA! are on sale at the Paramount Center box office (559 Washington St., Boston’s Theatre District),  online at  www.artsemerson.org or by calling 617.824.8000.

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