Dec 05 2009
フェラ!: 音楽的なショー
フェラ タバコの壊れ目を楽しんでいる
The Japanese doesn’t actually make any sense. I just did this to catch your attention.
Fela! was certainly a can of surprise for me. It completely blew my mind with its freshness of energy, which was something I was completely unexpecting.
Fela! isnt just a musical, it’s something else, it’s a multi-media performance. It’s as if theatre, band concerts and historical documentaries got drunk one day and had a wild bout in a motel room, the resultant love child would be what I call “Fela!”
This kind of switching made the performance fresh. It made it so the performance didn’t get boring.
Though in the end, the performance was supposed to expose the viewers to the origins of Afrobeat as well as the history of its colorful creator, I was surprised by the variety of music they played. Yes, in the end it’s all Afrobeat, but the different moods that were conjured up is amazing.
The show’s creators does a marvelous job of keeping us on our toes.
They even went over a large variety of topics. The songs would switch from impassioned criticisms of the Nigerian government to a crestfallen dirge for Fela’s mother. The show was all-encompassing in its reach, covering both the colorful public and the bold private lives of Fela.
On the other hand, the second part seemed to drag too long. The ending that touches on his personal catharsis and understanding of his life’s mission seemed to come from far left. Which is my only complaint.
When I first saw your blog, I was wondering how you expect us to know what those characters in the title meant. However, good idea. I also liked your blog, and agree with all that you mentioned.
Fela did manage to keep us engrossed all throughout its duration.
I agree with your last paragraph where you mentioned the end seemed to drag a bit, however, that was only because the first half of the show was so vibrant and lively with all the Afrobeat music, that we found it a little hard to adjust to the more serious, crux of the show.