Art & Authenticy

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. Continue Reading »

I, for one, loved that Ben Brantley gave FELA! such good reviews. If Ben Brantley loves it, that clearly speaks to how amazing the production really is. He emphasizes how I felt throughout the musical: there are no dull moments. I was sucked into the world created through the musical, and I honestly felt as though I was a part of it. The constant interactions between Fela and the audience kept my attention for the entire production (which is usually very hard to do). Continue Reading »

Ben Brantley’s review, “Afrobeat King, Recrowned,” on “Fela” describes many things that I felt about the performance but was unable to put into words. I cannot agree more that by teaching the audience members the clock dance, “Fela” leaves a long impression on them long after the show is over, as in Mr. Brantley’s words, “has the effect of tattooing the show’s propulsive rhythms onto them. Continue Reading »

After reading Brantley’s review of “West Side Story,” I expected harsh criticism of Bill T. Jones’s “Fela!” But I was surprised to see that many of his views were similar to mines. He was able to capture a combination of all of our presentations in reviewing “Fela!”

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Despite the numerous thumbs up from my fellow peers, I have to disagree with them on this one. FELA, to me, felt like a rushed experience that did not truly depict the struggles of Nigeria and Fela’s campaign against the oppressive government. The whole production was fleeting in that none of the scenes seemed to stand out more than the rest. Under my impression, the musical created a pompous and arrogant self promoting president in Fela Kuti as opposed to the legendary and revolutionary figure that I conceived him as. The dancing felt repetitive and the ridiculously fast tempo of the production created the impression that Fela was rushing to get off the stage as opposed to fighting the corruption of Nigeria. Every one of them featured a commentary, followed by the usual uptempo dancing by Fela and his crew and by then, these sequence of events became routine. In addition, this musical featured too many abstract themes that seemed tedious to the casual theatergoer. For example, much of Kuti’s life was portrayed in an implicit way such that audience members who have no knowledge of the political setting during Fela’s rise to fame, are lost in a bizarre shuffle of songs and motifs. When Fela mentions “black president”, those who are not aware of the fact that he’s declaring himself leader of his own nation are left with the belief that he’s referring to Barack Obama.

Paul Libin’s Fela! was truly an exciting show to experience. I have literally never seen so much music, dance, and energy in telling the story of someone’s life. Fela Anikulap Kuti, is definitely an entertaining, empowering, and unique person to immitate, but Kevin Mambo embodied him in an exceptional manner. Continue Reading »