December 13, 2009

On Broadway, 'Fela' draws great reviews: 'total theater'

Based on the life-story of Afro-beat legend and political rabble-rouser Fela Kuti, the new musical “Fela!” has been drawing solid reviews since its Nov. 23 opening night.

“Fela!” has an open-ended run at The Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $55 to $122. Aisle seats are $129 and $139. Premium seats are $202 and $227. Standing-room and student rush tickets are $27.

Producers advise the production may be inappropriate for children 12 and under.

The “Fela!” Broadway reviews:

New York magazine - “As an evening’s entertainment, Fela! is without peer: two and a half hours of electrifying music, astonishing dancing, and virtuosic stagecraft, anchored by a star turn as charismatic, and as taxing, as I’ve ever seen on Broadway.”

New York Times - “By the end of this transporting production, you feel you have been dancing with the stars. And I mean astral bodies, not dime-a-dozen celebrities.”

Hollywood Reporter - “Ngauhah — onstage for nearly every minute of the 2 1/2-hour show — displays endless reserves of charisma, sex appeal and musical talent, making his stage reincarnation of a genuine superstar, always a difficult task, more than credible.”

Post - “It’s a tough act to keep up, and “Fela!” does struggle after intermission.”

Wall Street Journal - ” All that’s missing from this bio-musical about the life of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the Nigerian pop star and political activist, is a plot, and an act and a half goes by before its absence becomes obtrusive. “

Variety - “More perplexing is the choice to withhold the information that Fela died of AIDS-related causes, despite a powerful agitprop finale in which “Stop HIV” and “Act up. Fight AIDS” are among the wide-reaching political slogans slapped over mock coffins.”

NY1 - “Jailed and beaten hundreds of times, Kuti is defiant, even after his mother, also an activist, is murdered by government soldiers. As the mother, Lilias White takes a small role and magnifies it a thousand times with her star wattage.”

New York Observer - “But if the story isn’t entirely satisfying, the evening is. With its ’60s kids singing of revolution, its general Be-In feeling, even its dancers coming down the aisles, Fela! is sort of a funked-up, African ‘Hair.’ “

USA Today - “Delivering exuberant storytelling through song and dance, Fela! achieves something closer to the essence of great musicals than many more conventional shows have of late.”

Bloomberg - “Perhaps the closest I can come to conveying my experience of “Fela!” is to call it a great humane and transcendent fable come to life, with everything “fable” implies: mythic, fabulous and a supreme lesson in living, here supplied magisterially by choreographer Bill T. Jones and his star, Sahr Ngaujah.”

Daily News - “The show, seen last year Off-Broadway, blends irresistibly catchy music, explosive dance and a dramatic personal journey to tell the story of a songwriter and political activist who died at age 58 in 1997.”

New Yorker - “One is Sahr Ngaujah, the man who, for most of the week, plays Fela. How did the producers find a performer who matched Fela in charm, wit, and insolence? They must have held a hundred auditions. In some respects, Ngaujah may actually be better than Fela.”

NewYorkology - “Though the story is largely an autobiographical monologue told by the actor playing Fela (the exceptional Sahr Ngaujah and Kevin Mambo alternate,) this is very much an ensemble with a cast of awe-inspiring dancers and an onstage band including several members of the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.”

Steve on Broadway - ” 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.”

Newsday - “‘Fela!’ misses a few storytelling beats.”

Los Angeles Times - “As much a concert and a dance piece as it is a musical, “Fela!” is perhaps best described as a work of total theater.”

Related: “Fela!” on “The Colbert Report.”

Playbill’s “Fela!” opening night pictures.

See more reviews at Critic O Meter.

December 13, 2009 7:29 PM in Broadway, Midtown

®Copyright 2004 - 2010, All Rights Reserved