{"id":652,"date":"2010-02-22T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:07:18","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:07:18","slug":"felas-dancing-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html","title":{"rendered":"Fela’s Dancing Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

After stressing for a bit about the cost of seeing three Broadway shows this long weekend, we convinced ourselves this wasn\u2019t going to happen again for a good long time and went for it.<\/p>\n

Jan had really, really wanted to see Fela!.<\/p>\n

And we did.<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nThe thread of a plot is the musical revolutionary life of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fela_Kuti\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Fela Anikulapo-Kuti<\/a>, Nigerian pioneer of the Afrobeat musical form, as well as relentless critic of his country\u2019s corruption and tyranny, with plenty of energy left over to chastise the multinationals that climbed into bed with the military dictatorship.<\/p>\nI understand what we saw was nearly twenty minutes shorter than its original off Broadway version.<\/p>\nBen Brantley\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/theater.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/24\/theater\/reviews\/24fela.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">review<\/a> says of the production \u201cFela!\u201d doesn\u2019t so much tell a story as soak an audience to and through the skin with the musical style and sensibility practiced by its leading man. That style is Afrobeat, an amalgam of diverse cultural elements that will be parsed and reassembled during the show by its performers and the wonderful Antibalas, an Afrobeat band out of Brooklyn. <\/span> Brantley goes on to say Lillias White <\/span>plays Funmilayo, the government-baiting feminist who was Fela\u2019s mother and whose ancestral spirit haunts her son. As anyone who saw her in \u201cThe Life\u201d knows, Ms. White\u2019s voice can penetrate the heavens, so it seems perfectly plausible that Funmilayo could become the goddess that Fela visits in the afterlife, in the show\u2019s most elaborately conceived and fantastical sequence.<\/span> <\/p>\n But the heart, soul and pelvis of \u201cFela!\u201d are located most completely in the phalanx of female dancers (I counted nine, but they feel legion) who stand in for the 27 women Fela married. Fela called these beauties his queens, and they are hardly your traditional chorus line<\/p>\n Mathew Murray\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.talkinbroadway.com\/world\/Fela.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">review<\/a> sucinctly describes the experience. Director-choreographer (Bill T.) Jones, who won a Tony for his dances in <\/span>Spring Awakening<\/i> but finds a much surer outlet here, has injected everyone with pure caffeine plasma. He inspires them to kick, shake, slither, and strut through Fela\u2019s songs, which are explosive only insofar as they state what the ruling class doesn\u2019t want to hear: mainly criticisms of the corruption that\u2019s caused intense poverty and treats ordinary people as criminals. (Sound familiar?) The songs are charged, yes, but you can still derive copious thrills by absorbing them simply as insinuating, pounding music. To the characters onstage, however, Fela\u2019s music is the rhythmic rumble of freedom. <\/span> Now Murray\u2019s review says the original was much more political and what we got was sanitized for the more conventional Broadway audience.<\/p>\nPerhaps.<\/p>\nBut I found it political enough. At the intermission Jan leaned over to me and said, \u201cThis isn\u2019t going to end well.\u201d<\/p>\nThat wasn\u2019t a comment on the sets, the costumes, both of which took us completely to 1978 Lagos and Fela\u2019s club, the Shrine, the music, which was infectious, or the dancing which was astonishing, or the performances, all of which were compelling, particularly Sar Ngaujah\u2019s incarnation of Fela. (I gather he developed this part in the off Broadway version, but now shares it alternatively with Kevin Mambo), which conveyed anger, humor, and drive all incarnated in this one man.<\/p>\nJan\u2019s comment was that this musical revolution wasn\u2019t going to work.<\/p>\nAnd one didn\u2019t need to know Nigerian history to know that.<\/p>\nJust a little history\u2026<\/p>\nToo much about one brilliant but undisciplined leader, too idiosyncratic, too narcissistic. And up against a machine that was prepared to devour the artist, his associates, and his followers.<\/p>\nOf course that\u2019s what tragedy is all about.<\/p>\nLike with Hair<\/span>, when the whole thing collapses in blood and death there is a theatrical attempt to pull it all together again with a reprise of the energy and hope that bubbled through the production up to that end\u2026<\/p>\nAnd I\u2019m up for that.<\/p>\nFor me this coda to life, even life on stage, spoke to the relentless drive in our human hearts to be something more,<\/p>\nto live full,<\/p>\nto engage full,<\/p>\nto stand against the forces that almost certainly will at some point bring down the curtain.<\/p>\nand yet, and yet, the beat goes on.<\/p>\nCoursing through our bodies.<\/p>\nLife itself. <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Applause, Please: FELA! on Broadway Curtain Call\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OxZLdt_B-lY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/span><\/span> Good message that\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n(And, in case you\u2019re interested, here\u2019s Fela himself, in concert\u2026)<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sU39XGxS9MY\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sU39XGxS9MY<\/a>\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-3614129288687884495?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After stressing for a bit about the cost of seeing three Broadway shows this long weekend, we convinced ourselves this wasn\u2019t going to happen again for a good long time and went for it. Jan had really, really wanted to see Fela!. And we did. The thread of a plot is the musical revolutionary life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Fela's Dancing Revolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After stressing for a bit about the cost of seeing three Broadway shows this long weekend, we convinced ourselves this wasn't going to happen again for a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fela's Dancing Revolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After stressing for a bit about the cost of seeing three Broadway shows this long weekend, we convinced ourselves this wasn't going to happen again for a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-22T07:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:07:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-3614129288687884495?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html\",\"name\":\"Fela's Dancing Revolution\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-22T07:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:07:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"After stressing for a bit about the cost of seeing three Broadway shows this long weekend, we convinced ourselves this wasn't going to happen again for a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/felas-dancing-revolution.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fela’s Dancing Revolution\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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