MUSICAL THEATRE REVIEW: FELA!
26 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
R: 4/5
Pictured: Sahr Ngaujah (centre)

TORONTO - Not surprisingly, the phrase “the hardest working man in show business” yields results in the multi-millions when Googled.

The real surprise however is that the name Sahr Ngaujah isn’t at the very top of the queue, for as anyone who has seen the touring production of FELA! — currently playing in a limited run through Nov. 6 at the Canon Theatre — can tell you, Ngaujah generates enough electricity in his performance in FELA!’s title role to light up the theatre, with more than enough left over to brighten the long road home.

For the uninitiated, FELA! is an extraordinary piece of musical theatre about the life of an extraordinary musician, specifically one Fela Anikulapa-Kuti (better known as simply Fela), the Nigerian-born father of what has become known as the Afro-beat, a distillation of traditional Yoruba music, blended with influences as diverse as jazz, funk and even chanting. But though FELA! features a compelling sampling of the artist’s music, it aims to dig a little deeper than the music — and, as often as not, it succeeds in a truly impressive fashion.

With a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones (who also directed and earned a much-deserved Tony for his choreography), FELA! is set in The Shrine — Fela’s performance home in Lagos, Nigeria, in the late 1970s. It is not, however, your standard-issue nightclub, located as it is in a seamy part of town and surrounded by soldiers assigned to keep an eye on the musician and his followers.

And though Fela dismisses those soldiers as mere mosquitoes, he’s recently learned the power of their sting, when, under orders from a corrupt government, they swarmed The Shrine and murdered his mother — an internationally recognized feminist and thinker played in flashback by a stately Melanie Marshall. It is not his first encounter with the authorities — but the death of his beloved mother has led him to believe that it is time to move on. So, when he hits the stage, Fela announces this will be his final show and that he will be leaving Nigeria — but first, he must consult the ancestors.

What follows is part history lesson, part music lesson and all party, as Ngaujah and a high energy cast recreate a night at The Shrine, filling the space with music, memories and a range of high energy dance that is certain to amaze anyone not familiar with Jones’ breathtaking gifts as a dancemaker. They also fill it with blazing colour, courtesy of designer Marina Draghici (who along with sound designer Robert Kaplowitz claimed two more Tonys for the show) and lighting designer Robert Wierzel.

Along the way, they touch lightly but tellingly on the minutia of Fela’s life, referencing a range of topics from his Christian forefathers through to his drug habits and his embrace of bigamy — he would amass 27 wives before giving up on the institution. Fela! even explores his political beliefs, underlining at the same time, with songs like Zombie, the whole notion that it is the role of the artist to expose problems, not solve them.

But mostly, FELA! is a celebration of the man and his music and while it eventually gets a little bogged down in the supernatural before abandoning either its hero or its audience — depending on one’s point of view — it remains a celebration you shouldn’t miss. This is a most happy FELA! indeed.