It was only going to Prince Charles' reception for the West African community at St James' Palace which featured in my column last week that caused me decide that I had to see Fela! again. Someone had the imaginative idea that they could bring the cast along to those august surroundings and perform an extract from the show. The Prince (not accompanied by Camilla Duchess of Cornwall) enjoyed his own session with a few performers in an adjoining room. His moment of rattling a beaded calabash, and making a few smart moves to African music even made it on to CNN's Inside Africa programme (it is actually showing as I write this column). He was, however, coy when asked if he was actually going to see the show, which has now returned to London for a season at Sadlers' Wells until the end of August.
I fell perchance into conversation with Stephen Hendel, on of the producers' of Fela! since it was first conceived off-Broadway in September 2008, who told me that the show had been re-worked since its first runs in New York, London (at the National Theatre) and at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos earlier this year. He encouraged me to give it another look, which I duly did at the press night, and was able to see for myself the improvements made. It is a shorter, crisper production, with some revised choreography (already one of the show's most exciting features), but there was the same ferocious élan that springs from Fela's music, and intense audience reaction and participation. The consultation via the Orishas ("your little son has made some big enemies") with his mother Funmilayo, the legendary West African feminist who died after having been thrown from a first floor window during the crushing of Kalakuta, is fully preserved. One notes that there is a different actress in the part with a fine voice who sings a new slow melodic number about rain.
The most important aspect of this production is that it has highlighted the political message contained in Fela's lyrics. Although both ITT (International Thief Thief) and Zombie were featured in the original production, they have been developed into bigger production numbers in this show and the harsh political sentiments put into sharper focus. In ITT the scathing criticism of over-mighty exploitative corporations, with placards naming some of the culprits. I could not help noticing that, with satisfying topicality, News Corp, symbol of the Rupert Murdoch empire, was included. As in the original, you can see, flashing up on the backdrop screen, some of Nigeria's military rulers, including Obasanjo (who was in power when the Kalakuta Republic was destroyed by the Nigerian Army). For Fela's vast international constituency the role of Obasanjo is still a permanent stain on his place in history, even as his overall record still has its supporters.
The wiry Sierra Leonean actor , Sahr Ngaujah, who portrays Fela repeats his tour de force with, if it is possible, seemingly even more vitality than before - he is certainly on stage for most of the running time, but his energy and charisma never flag. I found myself chatting to him while waiting for a tropical downpour at St James Palace to finish. He told me that playing Fela in Nigeria, actually in The New Afrika Shrine in its current Ikeja venue, was particularly moving. Initially there was some suspicion to overcome, he said, in view of the possessive way Nigerians feel about this particularly special icon, but once they saw what the show was, and word of mouth spread like wildfire, the show had passionately engaged audiences.
It was, he said, a never to be forgotten experience. A note in the programme records that it was Fela's son Femi Kuti, who with his brother Seun, has successfully preserving Fela's musical tradition of Afro-beat, who put on the pressure to bring the show to Lagos. "It does my father justice" he is quoted as saying. Indeed, so powerful has been the impact of Fela that one wonders how much longer it will go on touring, catering for the constituency of the 'crazy genius' that just seems to keep on growing. In my forthcoming book on Lagos I have a chapter on Fela ('Lagos Boy') in which I describe Fela as "arguably the best known of all Nigerians on the planet".
Postscript: looking back at the column on 'Prince Charles at Jesus House', which I wrote in 2007 which I referred to last week, there was a picturesque quote from the Prince, referring to the Redeemed Church of God: "Your yearly free car wash events, the spreading Christmas cheer programme - working in underground stations to give away hot drinks and mince pies and visiting the elderly and drop-in centres - in your church you are doing the things that Jesus would do if he walked the streets of London today."
