Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, Nas Honour Fela

In the past few weeks, musical legends Nas, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Ziggy Marley, and Smokey Robinson have led standing ovations at Fela!, which is now thrilling audiences at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre through January 22nd and will continue playing select US cities through June, 2012. Fela! -- a celebration of the life of music pioneer Fela Kuti -- has received 11 Tony Nominations and won three Tonys for Best Choreography, Best Costumes and Best Sound. The musical has been touring the world, with its most recent runs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the blessings of the Kuti family, the show opened in 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. With Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Will & Jada Pinkett-Smith coming on board as Producers and ?uestlove of The Roots as Associate Producer, over the next 15 months, Fela! played host to half a million people. Celebrities kept coming; Madonna, Hugh Jackman, Denzel Washington, Ben Stiller, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Sting, Harry Belafonte, Spike Lee, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé Knowles, Kofi Annan and First Lady Michelle Obama, to name a handful. The show received 11 Tony nominations and three Tony Awards for Best Choreography, Best Costumes and Best Sound. In 2010, prior to leaving Broadway, Fela! saw a sold-out season of performances at London's prestigious Royal National Theatre and was nominated for scores of Olivier Awards. The original Broadway cast spent two weeks in Lagos, Nigeria in April with the opening performance at the Kuti family's New Africa Shrine, and was the centerpiece of this year's Holland Festival in Amsterdam.
 Talib Kweli and Mos Def recently shared the stage with members of the cast of FELA! in San Francisco. Check out this video of the event.
 Rapper Nas called the musical "very important work," and Kanye West found the production to be "inspiring" (he also invited the entire cast to a Watch The Throne show). The legendary Stevie Wonder was spotted during opening night of FELA! in Los Angeles, where he harmonized with Fela dancer Jacqui Dubois on an acapella ditty   The tour, now in Los Angeles until January 22, is headed next to Washington, DC for six shows at the Warner Theatre from January 26 - 29, then to Detroit.
As swarms of celebrities take to the theatre to profess their love of and influence by the Afrobeat pioneer and First Black President, Fela Kuti, Knitting Factory Records continues to release rare recordings and special editions of Kuti's work, in addition to new albums by his sons Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti. Over the past 2 years, Knitting Factory Records has reissued the entire Fela Kuti catalogue digitally and on CD, and has released one vinyl boxset, curated by ?uestlove of The Roots. This year, a second vinyl boxset will be released in addition to a number of rare and live recordings. Knitting Factory Records is also in the process of reissuing recordings by Kuti's cousins, The Lijadu Sisters, which have been unavailable for almost three decades.
Give a shout for more information about the show or Fela Kuti's album releases, including the Original Broadway Cast Recording: FELA! (The Musical).
PRESS FOR FELA!
"THE HOT (AND SERIOUSLY COOL) ENERGY that comes from the musical gospel preached by the title character of FELA! feels as if it could stretch easily to the borders of Manhattan and then across a river or two. There should be dancing in thestreets!" - Ben Brantley, the New York Times

"FELA! RADIATES JOY." -Tom Geier, Entertainment Weekly

"FIVE STARS (out of five) FELA! Is more than a musical; it's an ECSTATIC PHENOMENON."  -  Dave Cote, Time Out New York   

"BILL T. JONES wildly loose-limbed journey into the throbbing heart of Afrobeat BREAKS BOLD NEW GROUND IN MUSICAL THEATRE."   -  David Rooney, Variety

 "There's enough energy in the first act of FELA! to short circuit Con Ed. It spills over from the stage and into the orchestra seats. BOUNDLESS AND JOYOUS: This is as close as Broadway gets to fully immersive theatre." -  Elizabeth Vincentelli, New York Post

• 11:06
• O. George
• Fela play, Jay Z, Nas, Stevie wonder
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