Fela Kuti

"Fela!" is the Broadway musical we saw last night. It is about Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician and political activist. He developed Afrobeat; tried to run for the Presidency of Nigeria under his newly formed political party called MOP (Movement of the People); and survived numerous beatings at the hands of the police. His mother was thrown out of the second story window of his home during one of many raids. She died from her injuries. Fela Kuti took his mother's coffin and left it on the steps of Dodan Barracks, the Supreme Military Headquarters of Nigeria. He wanted to show that political power could not remove the freedom of the mind. Fela died in 1997 from complications of AIDS.

The actor who plays Fela in the musical, sings or plays saxaphone in all but one of the musical numbers. The dancing is an intense mixture of gyrating, vibrating, shaking and jumping. "Fela" spoke to the audience throughout the musical and even required us all to stand up and practice our own dance.

My sister had scored third row tickets with the aisle on my side and the stage runway

next to her. The dancers were so close and so intense that repeatedly we felt as if they would fall off the stage and into our laps. When it was over and the lights had come up my sister looked at me and said, "I'm exhausted." It was a most amazing production. I had never heard of Fela Kuti before and was grateful for the education.

We left the theater in search of dinner and discovered we were just a half block from Times Square. The place was packed. After a show like "Fela!" it seemed right that we should find ourselves surrounded by so much light and color and energy.