FELA! Cast Confirmed at Sadler’s Wells

Olivier and Tony Award-nominated actor Sahr Ngaujah leads the cast of FELA! at Sadler’s Wells’ this summer, joined by Melanie Marshall as Funmilayo Kuti and Paulette Ivory as Sandra Izsadore.

A provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music, exploring the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical runs at Sadler’s Wells from 20 July to 28 August 2011.

Ngaujah, Marshall and Ivory reprise their roles in FELA!, Ngaujah having most recently led the cast for the landmark performances of FELA! in Lagos, as well as at the National Theatre in 2010. During its run at the NT, the show received three Olivier Award nominations, including one for Sahr Ngaujah as Best Actor in a Musical.

Ngaujah originated the role of Fela Kuti Off-Broadway and transferred with the show to Broadway, where he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. His film and TV credits include Passing Glory, A Lesson Before Dying, The Signal, Stomp the Yard and Blood Done Sign My Name. He is currently art director for the Sierra Leone hiphop act Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew.

Paulette Ivory originated the role of Nala in the West End production of The Lion King and was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for her role in the US National Tour of Aida. Melanie Marshall has appeared in Simply Heavenly, Porgy and Bess, Fame, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Kiss Me Kate in the West End.

Adesola Osakalumi plays Fela Kuti at certain performances throughout the run and understudies Sahr Ngaujah. He previously understudied the role of Fela Kuti in New York. His other credits include Equus on Broadway, and Jam on the Groove, for which he was nominate for a Drama Desk award.

Also joining the cast of 25 are Ismael Kouyate, Gelan Lambert, Talu Green, Iris Wilson, Nicole DeWeever, Cat Foster, Cindy Belliot, Aimee Wodobode, Nandi Bhebhe, Pundo Gomis, Catia Mota Da Cruz, Sherinne Anderson, Jacqui Dubois, Wanjiru Kamuyu, Jill Marie Vallery, Oneika Phillips, Ryan Rankine, Jermaine Rowe, Thierry Picaut, Justin Prescott and Jonathan Andre.

The cast at Sadler’s Wells combines companies from both the award-winning Broadway and National Theatre productions of the show. Ahead of their six week run at Sadler’s Wells, the cast will perform at Latitude on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July.

Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T Jones’s visionary, award-winning staging, FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music.

Recognised as an icon in the international world of rock and roll, soul, jazz and hip-hop, Fela Kuti combined elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, giving rise to “Afrobeat”. Through his music he condemned military regimes in Nigeria. He was arrested more than 200 times and beaten savagely on many occasions. Despite this he continued to live in Nigeria and produced more than 70 albums during his career.

FELA! was choreographed, directed and co-written (with lyricist Jim Lewis) by Bill T. Jones, a leading light in American contemporary dance. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. The company last performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2004.

Jones’ awards include the 2007 Tony Award, the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening and the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven.

FELA! received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, where it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design, and an Astaire Award for Bill T. Jones’ choreography.

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are by Marina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, Slava Smolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

“The dancing is ecstatic, the music lifts the spirits and the stage is alive with movement” The Guardian

Release issued by: Sadler’s Wells press office

LINKS

Book tickets to FELA! at Sadler’s Wells in London

Sadler’s Wells Brings The Full Cast Of Fela Kuti Musical To Latitude

The UK’s leading dance house, Sadler’s Wells, returns to Latitude Festival for the fourth time on Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 July 2011 with a diverse programme of dance on the Waterfront Stage.

Sadler’s Wells presents a programme for Latitude’s Waterfront Stage that reflects both the theatre’s reputation for presenting world class dance in all its forms, and Latitude’s diversity. The Sadler’s Wells line-up features highlights from the full cast of Broadway’s sensational Tony award-winning hit musical, FELA!; two celebrated British companies – hip hop dance from ZooNation Dance Company and contemporary dance from Rambert Dance Company; as well as a UK premiere that fuses dance and music.

Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director and Chief Executive Alistair Spalding comments: Latitude Festival continues to provide us with a platform to present dance to a wider audience beyond our theatre. We are delighted to be returning to thebeautiful surroundings of the Waterfront Stage for a fourth year with an exciting and varied programme of dance which will appeal to all Latitude goers and dance enthusiasts alike.

On Sunday 17 July, FELA!’s full cast of 25 performers, will be lead by Olivier Award-nominated Sahr Ngaujah, who returns to the title role at Sadler’s Wells this July, having garnered acclaim for his portrayal of Kuti in New York, Lagos and London.

Sadler’s Wells Producer Emma Gladstone says: “I’m thrilled that for our fourth return to Latitude, we’re able to present our most ambitious line-up to date. 25 performers from the smash hit show FELA!, which celebrates the life of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, will wow the audience at Latitude ahead of their six-week run at Sadler’s Wells this summer.”

The Sadler’s Wells’ summer show features many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T Jones’s visionary staging and choreography, revealing Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist through his pioneering music.

Recognised as an icon in the international world of rock and roll, soul, jazz and hip-hop, Fela Kuti combined elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, giving rise to “Afrobeat”. Through his music he condemned military regimes in Nigeria. He was arrested more than 200 times and beaten savagely on many occasions. Despite this he continued to live in Nigeria and produced more than 70 albums during his career.

On both days the programme features an extract from Sadler’s Wells Resident Company ZooNation’s brand new work, Some Like It Hip Hop. With a nod to Billy Wilder’s much loved film Some Like It Hot and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Some Like it Hip Hop is a comical tale of love, mistaken identity, cross-dressing, gender stereotypes and revolution; all played out in ZooNation’s trademark style of hip hop, comedy and physical theatre. This is the company’s first full-length production since the award-winning West End smash hit, Into the Hoods.

Directed by ZooNation founder and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince, with original music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, the cast includes Tommy Franzen and Lizzie Gough from So You Think You Can Dance, and Teneisha Bonner (StreetDance 3D, Shoes). Some Like It Hip Hop makes its world premiere at the Peacock Theatre in London from Thursday 20 October – Saturday 19 November 2011.

The programme for both days also presents Tommi Kitti’s A Trip. Originally premiered in 1995 as a solo for Kitti it has been reworked as a duet and makes its UK Premiere at Latitude Festival. Performed to the music of American blues singer-songwriter John Lee Hooker, A Trip has been chosen for its appeal to both music and dance fans; a perfect piece to fit the ethos of Latitude Festival.

“One interesting thing in Hooker’s music is that it does not go anywhere. It creates a moment in which emotionally you go deeper and deeper. For me it is very dramatic, even though there is no drama happening. It is a trip in a second.”Tommi Kitti

Concluding Saturday’s line up is the Olivier Award-winning Rambert Dance Company, which celebrates its 85th anniversary this year. For Latitude the Company performs a new Rambert commission; Tim Rushton’s Monolith. Artistic Director of Danish Dance Theatre for 10 years, British-born Rushton returns to the UK to create his first piece for a British dance company, inspired by mystical energies that haunt sites of man-made gathering places.

Release issued by: Sadler’s Wells press office

LINKS

Book tickets to FELA! at Sadler’s Wells in London

FELA! Comes to Sadler’s Wells this Summer

“There should be dancing in the streets. There has never been anything like this.” New York Times

Sadler’s Wells’ summer show for 2011 is the Tony Award-winning Broadway dance musical FELA!. A provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music, exploring the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, the production runs at Sadler’s Wells from 20 July to 28 August 2011.

Leading the cast is Olivier Award-nominated Sahr Ngaujah, who returns to the title role, having garnered acclaim for his portrayal of Kuti in New York and London. Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music.

Recognised as an icon in the international world of rock and roll, soul, jazz and hip-hop, Fela Kuti combined elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, giving rise to “Afrobeat”. Through his music he condemned military regimes in Nigeria. He was arrested more than 200 times and beaten savagely on many occasions. Despite this he continued to live in Nigeria and produced more than 70 albums during his career.

FELA! was choreographed, directed and co-written (with lyricist Jim Lewis) by Bill T. Jones, a leading light in American contemporary dance. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming theBill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. The company last performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2004.

Jones’ awards include the 2007 Tony Award, the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening and the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven.

FELA! received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, where it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design, and an Astaire Award for Bill T. Jones’ choreography.

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are by Marina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, Slava Smolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

“The dancing is ecstatic, the music lifts the spirits and the stage is alive with movement” The Guardian

Press night: Tuesday 26 July 2011 at 7.30pm

Release issued by: Sadler’s Wells

LINKS

Book tickets to FELA! at Sadler’s Wells in London

 

FELA! tickets at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Direct from Broadway and a sell-out season at the National Theatre, Bill T Jones’ Tony award-winning dance, theatre and music show about Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti returns to London.

Hit Musical Fela! Transfers To Sadler’s Wells For Summer Run

Following a sell-out run at the National Theatre which ends on Sunday 23 January, the hit musical FELA! transfers to Sadler’s Wells this summer for a six week run.

A provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music, exploring the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti the production will run at the UK’s leading dance house from 20 July to 28 August 2011. Tickets are on sale from Monday 24 January.

Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies).

Alistair Spalding, Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director comments“FELA! has been a huge success both on Broadway and at the National Theatre and I’m thrilled we are now able to bring it to Sadler’s Wells. I have keenly followed the development of the show from its earliest days and it is wonderful to be working once again with Bill T Jones and in partnership with the National. Fela! is an incredibly entertaining combination of dance, music and theatre making it the perfect summer show for Sadler’s Wells.”

Nicholas Hytner, Director of the National Theatre says “Having FELA! at the National Theatre has been thrilling and unforgettable. Bill T Jones, his creative team and brilliant company created an exhilarating experience in the Olivier Theatre, and audiences came in their droves to dance in the aisles – almost half of them visiting the NT for the first time. I’m delighted that the party isn’t over and that London audiences will have another chance to see this extraordinary show at Sadler’s Wells.”

FELA! received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, where it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design, and an Astaire Award for Bill T. Jones’ choreography. Its hugely successful run at the National Theatre was praised as “a musical of rare choreographic splendour and political bite” (Sunday Times).

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are by Marina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, Slava Smolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

Release issued by: Sadler’s Wells press office

LINKS

Shoes The Musical at the Peacock Theatre

Sadler’s Wells: shows now booking

Sadler’s Wells website

Fela! – Reviews Round-up

A round-up of press reviews for FELA!: Direct from Broadway, Bill T Jones’ Tony award-winning dance, theatre and music show based on the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Book tickets to FELA! at the National Theatre

Opening this week: Rainbow and Fela!

This week’s West End openings include End of the Rainbow, FELA! and The Master Builder.

End of the Rainbow

Today, Monday 15 November, sees the start of previews for End of the Rainbow at the Trafalgar Studios. Tracie Bennett gives an outstanding performance as Judy Garland in Peter Quilter’s touching play about the drama of Garland’s final performances in London and her controversial life off stage.

Set in London in 1968, the play features some of Garland’s most memorable songs including The Man That Got Away, Come Rain or Come Shine, The Trolley Song and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Olivier award-winner Tracie Bennett gives a career-defining performance as Garland, alongside Hilton McRae as Anthony, Garland’s devoted pianist and musical director and Stephen Hagan as soon-to-be husband number five, Mickey Deanes.

End of the Rainbow is directed by Terry Johnson, who directed Bennett in La Cage Aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre and recently directed a new production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Vaudeville. Read an interview with Tracie Bennett.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save on tickets to see End of the Rainbow at the Trafalgar Studios

FELA!

Opening this week, on Tuesday 16 November, is the Broadway production of FELA!, which comes to the National Theatre for a limited run. In New York Fela! started off-Broadway before raves reviews propelled it on to the Great White Way where it continues to pack in audiences.

A unique hybrid of dance, theatre and music, the show explores the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Co-written, directed and choreographed by Bill T Jones (Spring Awakening), Fela! exposes Kuti’s controversial life as an artist, commune founder, polygamist and political activist, set against the backdrop of his pioneering music, which fuses  jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies.

The stars of the Broadway production, Sahr Ngaujah and Kevin Mambo, have come to London for the show, and will alternate in the roles of Fela, alongside a brand new British cast including UK stage star Paulette Ivory (The Lion King, Aida) who plays American political activist Sandra Izsadore.

LINK: National Theatre

The Master Builder

On Wednesday, Gemma Arterton and Stephen Dillane open in the Almeida’s new production of Ibsen classic The Master Builder. The play is directed by Travis Preston, an internationally celebrated theatre and opera director who is also Artistic Director of the Center for New Performance at the California Institute of the Arts.

LINK: Almeida Theatre

And coming soon

Opening next week… End of the Rainbow gets its official first night on 22 November. Also on Monday Maureen Nolan takes over from Lyn Paul as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, and happy 80th birthday Sir Peter Hall. Tuesday 23rd see Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles open in The Rivals at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and on Wednesday kid’s show The Gruffalo returns to the West End for Christmas. Previewing from 27 November is Chichester’s movie-to-musical Love Story at the Duchess Theatre, produced by Michael Ball.

In two weeks… Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella makes a glamorous return to Sadler’s Wells on 30 November. Also on the 30th, the RSC takes residence at the Roundhouse for the Winter season with Romeo & Juliet, Anthony & Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, King Lear, Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors; plus Derek Jacobi gives his King Lear at the Donmar (3 December) and Tom Hollander starts previews of A Flea in Her Ear at the Old Vic (4 December).

In three weeks… Love Story gets its official opening night at the Duchess starring Emma Williams and Michael Xavier on 6 December; those CBBC rascals Dan and Jeff bring Pantomime mayhem to the Vaudeville with Edinburgh family hit Potted Panto on 10 December; and on the same night English National Ballet open their seasonal production of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum in a sumptuous new production by Artistic Director Wayne Eagling to celebrate the Company’s 60th birthday.

VIDEO: Fela! at the National Theatre

Direct from Broadway, Bill T Jones’ Tony award-winning dance, theatre and music show based on the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Book tickets to Fela!
More information about the show
More information about the National Theatre

VIDEO

Fela! at the National Theatre in London

LINKS

Watch more videos on West End Theatre TV

Celebrity Endorsement : The Musical

Bette Midler, Michael Ball, Whoopi Goldberg, Will Smith… is celebrity endorsement of musicals the future of theatre?

It’s one thing for a star name to be jettisoned into a musical to liven things up and provide some celebrity “tits and ass”. But what about celebrities simply endorsing a show because, well, they can?

This comes after news that the Divine Miss M, Bette Midler, will act as a “producer” on the new Broadway production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in New York, running from 28 February.

Midler is joining a growing list of celebs on both sides of the Atlantic who are investing their time and money in shows without feeling the need to haul themselves on stage, from Elton John bank-rolling gay play Next Fall, to Will Smith and Jay-Z  injecting a million dollars into Fela! – which is coming to the National Theatre next month.

And in the UK let’s not forget Whoopi Goldberg’s involvement in Sister Act, providing money and showbiz face-time, but with minimal artistic input from the lady herself (not counting the few days she actually starred in it).

Michael Ball has also recently lent his cash and name to the Chichester transfer of new musical Love Story, which opens at the Duchess Theatre next month.

All this is nothing new in TV land, where getting an executive producer credit on a show is contracted as part of the deal and relates to getting some extra dollars. It’s the stuff of a million US dramas where the headline star is given an Exec Producer credit.

But in the UK, is there still an expectation that anyone with Producer in their title should actually do just that, and even carry the can for the production?

You only need to look back to “executive producers” Ant & Dec and the TV phone voting scandal to see how wrong it can go, and how the title does carry some responsibility for the way the show is made and marketed.

So is this the way that theatre is going? Musicals have become a big, global business with millions of dollars at stake, so attaching a star name like Bette Midler, Michael Ball and Whoopi Goldberg to a project – especially a project without any onstage star names – seems like a clever marketing ploy.

It could also be a genuine way for the celebrity endorser to broaden their career in entertainment and become engaged and active in the business of putting on shows rather than just starring in them – something that Michael Ball seems to be doing.

And despite Bette Midler pumping a rumoured “significant” amount of money into Priscilla, she has also met with the director of the show, Simon Phillips, and given him extensive notes on his new production, and plans to attend rehearsals ahead of the pre-Broadway try-out in Toronto next week to add her thoughts (we’d love to know what Simon Phillips thinks of this input!)

If celebrity endorsement of shows is the shape of things to come, and is sold to us as something more than just an investment and a credit above the title, we will need to hear from the celebrities themselves about why they want to be involved. Bette’s Priscilla press release quote about her participation simply confirms our worst suspicions: “A new star on Broadway and her name is PRISCILLA!! So much fun, it’s practically illegal!!  In fact, it IS illegal in four states!!”

FELA!

Direct from Broadway, Bill T Jones’ Tony award-winning dance, theatre and music show based on the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.