Enter the extravagant, decadent, rebellious world of a legendary musician.

A provocative hybrid of dance and Broadway musical, FELA! features the Afrobeat music of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a book by Jim Lewis and the direction and choreography of Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones.

His Passion Ignited a Generation.
His Music Fueled a Revolution.
His Legacy Inspires the World.

FELA! uses stirring Afrobeat music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), to tell the story of Kuti’s controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician. Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! is the most original new musical on Broadway.

Come for the music. Come for the dancing. Come awaken your soul.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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• Who wrote FELA!?

  FELA! was written by Jim Lewis & Bill T. Jones; the music and lyrics are by by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, with additional lyrics by Jim Lewis. It was conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis & Steve Hendel and it is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones

• If I’m not familiar with the work of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, will I like FELA!?

  Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, a pioneer of Afrobeat music, a human rights activist and a political maverick. He is ranked among the world’s most influential musicians. If you like soul-stirring rhythms, compelling real-life stories and passionate choreography, you will love FELA!

• Who is Bill T. Jones?

  BILL T. JONES (Conceiver / Director / Choreographer / Book Writer) is the recipient of a 2007 Tony® Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Harlem Renaissance Award; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius� Award. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.� Mr. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, which is currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary. He has created more than 100 works for his company.

• Who is Jim Lewis?

  JIM LEWIS (Conceiver/Book Writer/Additional Lyrics) In 2008, Jim received a Lucille Lortell Award for “Outstanding Musical” for FELA! and two Drama Desk nominations for “Best Book” for both FELA! and This Beautiful City (w/ The Civilians). Selected works.B’WAY: Chronicle of a Death Foretold (TONY, Drama Desk nominations), and Dangerous Games (both w/ Graciela Daniele). OFF B’WAY/REGIONAL: Tango Apaisionado, Ionesco’s The Chairs, Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea.OPERA/DANCE: Paul Dresher’s The Tyrant, Ballet Hispanico’s Nightclub; Philip Glass's Les Enfants Terribles, PastFORWARD (w/ Mikhail Baryshnikov). DRAMATURG: House Arrest (Anna Deavere Smith), Drawn to Death (Art Spiegelman),; Cymbeline and Waste (w/ Bartlett Sher), Lincoln Center's WOZA AFRIKA Festival. Previously w/ Bill T. Jones: Dream On Monkey Mountain, Chapel/Chapter and Still/Here (20th Anniversary Season).

• What is Antibalas?

  ANTIBALAS (Arrangements / Musicians) Credited with introducing Afrobeat to a new generation, this Brooklyn-based collective has released four critically-acclaimed albums since forming in 1998, and can been heard on numerous Afrobeat compilations. Antibalas has performed more than 700 concerts around the world including appearances at the Coachella, Newport and the Montreux Festivals.
  
  The Band
  · Stuart Bogie—Tenor Saxophone
  · Dylan Fusillo—Percussion
  · Greg Gonzalez—Drums
  · Alex Harding—Baritone Saxophone
  · Jordan McLean—Trumpet
  · Oren Bloedow—Guitar
  · Ricardo Quinones—Guitar
  · Yoshihiro Takemasa—Percussion
  · Jeremy Wilms—Bass & Keys

• Who is Fela Anikulapo-Kuti?

  Fela Ransome Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, north of Lagos in 1938. His father was a Christian schoolmaster, minister and master pianist and his mother was a world-recognized feminist leader, who was very active in the anti-colonial Nigerian women's movement during the struggle for independence.
  
  Fela was educated in Nigeria amongst the indigenous elite. Ironically, many of his classmates in his Nigerian school would become the very military leaders he so vociferously opposed.
  
  With medical aspirations for their offspring (Fela’s older brother. Koye, was to become a Deputy Director of the World Health Organization and his younger brother, Beko, President of the Nigerian Medical Association) in 1958 Fela's parents sent him to London for a medical education. Instead, he registered at Trinity College's school of music where he studied composition and chose the trumpet as his instrument. Quickly tiring of European composers, Fela, struck by Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra, formed the Koola Lobitos in 1961, and his band became a fixture in London's club scene. Two years later, Fela returned to Nigeria, restarted the Koola Lobitos, and became influenced by James Brown. Trying to find an authentic musical voice, he added elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, and "Afrobeat" was born. In 1969, Fela's Koola Lobitos traveled to Los Angeles to tour and record. During his eight months in the US, with LA as a home base, Fela befriended Sandra Isidore, who introduced him to the writings and politics of Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver and other proponents of Black nationalism and Afrocentrism.
  
  With this new politically explicit and critical worldview, Fela reformed the Koola Lobitos as Nigeria 70 and returned to Lagos. He founded a commune/recording studio called the Kalakuta Republic, complete with his own private nightclub, The Shrine, and Fela dropped his given middle name "Ransome," and replaced it with a Yoruba name "Anikulapo" (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"). Playing constantly and recording at a ferocious pace, Fela and band (who were now called Africa 70) became huge stars in West Africa and beyond. His music served as a rallying cry for the disenfranchised, critiquing the military government, and made Fela not only a pop star but thrust him into political life. People took to the streets singing his songs and the military responded by viciously harassing Fela, jailing him and nearly killing him on several occasions.
  
  In 1977, during a government-sanctioned attack on his Kalakuta Republic commune, Fela and other members of his commune were arrested; Fela himself suffered a fractured skull as well as other broken bones; a number of women living at Kalakuta were beaten and raped; and his 82-year old mother was thrown from an upstairs window, inflicting injuries that would later prove fatal. The soldiers set fire to the compound and prevented fire fighters from reaching the area. Fela's recording studio, all his master tapes and musical instruments and the only known copy of his self-financed film Black President were destroyed.
  
  After the Kalakuta tragedy, Fela briefly lived in exile in Ghana, returning to Nigeria in 1978. A year later, he formed his own political party, MOP (Movement of the People) and ran for president in two elections, although his campaigning was consistently blocked by the military. As the '80s ended, Fela recorded blistering attacks against Nigeria's corrupt military government.
  
  Fela Anikulapo–Kuti was arrested more than two hundred times in his life, and charged with almost every conceivable crime, although only serving one eighteen month sentence in jail for a currency violation. Despite this constant harassment he continued to live in Nigeria even though, as an icon in the international world of rock and roll, soul, jazz and hip-hop, he could have at any point abandoned Nigeria and led the life of an international music superstar. His death on August 3, 1997 of complications from AIDS deeply affected musicians and fans internationally, as a unique and ineffable musical and sociopolitical voice was lost. In Nigeria one million people attended his funeral. His incredible body of work, almost 70 albums, is now available, through public demand, all over the world.

• Where did FELA! play before?

  FELA! had its world premiere in 2008 at Off-Broadway’s 37 Arts Theatre. The production earned widespread critical acclaim and won three Lucille Lortel Awards: Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Choreography (Bill T. Jones) and Outstanding Costume Design (Marina Draghici). Sahr Ngaujah won the Obie Award for Performance for his portrayal of the title role, and New York Magazine named FELA! its pick for Best Theatre 2008. Click here to read the reviews.

• How much are tickets?

  The range in price from $50.50 to $120.00. Click here to buy now.

• Can I buy a ticket in person?

  Yes! The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Box Office is located at 230 W. 49th Street in New York City.
  
  Box office hours are Monday-Saturday, 10 am–8 pm
  
  Beginning 10/25, the box office will also be open Sundays 12 noon–6 pm
  
  Box Office hours are subject to change.
  
  Click here to buy online now or to purchase tickets by phone, call Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200.

• If I bring a group, can I get a cheaper price?

  Yes! Groups tickets start at $35! Special Early Bird prices available. Click here or call 1-800-BROADWAY to book your group of 10+ today!