Long, Long, Long, Long Time Ago

Fela Kuti “I.T.T. (Part 2)” There are a lot of ways that a Broadway production based upon the life and music of Fela Kuti could go wrong or just be sort of unbearably hokey, but Fela! by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones is an excellent, engaging show that brings Afrobeat into an unlikely context without diluting the music or condescending to either the source material or the theater audience. The production is built around the conceit that you are at Fela’s personal club The Shrine in Lagos, and he is hosting his show and explaining the circumstances of his life via monologue and his music. The narrative is fairly didactic in the first act, including an entertaining explanation of Afrobeat involving demonstrations of the various musical influences on the distinct sound, and more abstracted in the second, which climaxes with a spectacular, impressionistic dance-centric set piece. The story can get a bit wobbly at some points, but the narrative thread is secondary to the brilliance of the music, which is performed by Antibalas, and Jones’ choreography, which is so amazing as to seem unreal. [Buy Fela’s music from Amazon. Buy tickets to see Fela! on Broadway.]

- Matthew Perpetua