Art & Authenticy

The extent to which this Broadway musical was pushed was one that I didnt think possible.

The “pushing limits” occurred the second I walked into the theater.  Never before have I seen the entire theater decorated for a play.  While I didn’t grasp the significance of the entire theater being decorated, at the end of the show I put two and two together and realized that the decorations tied in with the theme of the musical – breaking rules, pushing limits, and stepping outside of the set standards.  Everything pieced together and everything about the performance was centered around the same idea.  That was great.

Then, the musical began, and suddenly, the actors had the audience up on their feet, and a part of the performance.  That I have never seen before either.  This play just got unique by the second!

What I loved most about the performance was the story that it told.  Never before have I known or even heard about Fela Kuti, which is odd as he is a figure that changed history and was significant in its shaping.  But the part that appealed to me the most was the reality of the story.  In High School I learned about Nigeria, its government, and all the corruption that the country is infected with.  But seeing that story told through a person gave me a feeling of reality.  I realized that everything I learned was actually true and real, and that people in Nigeria do suffer to the same extent as I have read in the history book.  Not only did I know about the pain, the corruption, and the mistreatment of citizens, I now understood it.