Tony Award-winning production aptly tells tale of man who used music to stir activism, agitation in good measure in native NigeriaDeep into “Fela!,” when Fela Anikulapo-Kuti stands defiant at The Shrine, even as the Nigerian military authorities try to break the back of his collective family, the cast of the touring musical brings out some coffins as a political memorial to those lost in the struggle for peace and freedom. Martin’s killing in Sanford, Fla., history likely will show, was a matter of great complexity, just as Fela, the famous, infamous Nigerian musician, agitator and political activist, was an imperfect man about whom there was a variety of opinions. But the very fact that Martin died, whatever the details, still suggests that little which Fela talked about 40 years ago has been solved. And the presence of that name on this Chicago stage was enough to demonstrate that Bill T. Jones’ gutsy, singular creation is a very unusual Broadway musical, and that this exemplary, first-class tour, led (at most performances for the next three weeks) by the show’s remarkable. “Fela!” is many things, but it is first and foremost an evocation of what it was like to hear a Fela concert-come-rally at The Shrine, the combination music venue-personal compound inextricably linked with this man. The music and lyrics in this show are the work of the late Fela Kuti.
