The author of a biography of Afrobeat musical pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti has filed suit against the Broadway musical Fela!, claiming the show used portions of his book in the play's script in violation of his copyright, according to The New York Times.

Carlos Moore is the author of the 1982 book, Fela: This Bitch of a Life. According to ...

Kevin Mambo, who has alternated the part of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in Afrobeat musial Fela! since the show opened in October 2009, will now tackle the title role on his own. Tony-nominated Sahr Nguajah, with whom Mambo has shared the role, played his final performance on October 10. Ngaujah is slated to star in a West End run of the show ...

The ensemble of Broadway's Tony Award-nominated Fela! will receive Actors' Equity Association's Advisory Committee on Chorus Affairs (ACCA) fourth annual award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. The award, which honors the distinctive talents and contributions made by the chorus of a Broadway musical, will be presented in a special ceremony in the Council Room at Equity’s headquarters in ...

With a career spanning over 50 years, multiple Grammy Awards, a song inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (her hit "Lady Marmalade," obvs!) and record sales numbers hovering somewhere in the stratosphere, you’d think music legend Patti LaBelle might need a break. But the inimitable soul songstress has instead strutted her way to the stage to join the ...

A powerful force just swept into the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, as musical whirlwind Patti LaBelle took over the role of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti in Fela! on September 14. The Godmother of Soul has won multiple Grammys, but this is her first time in a Broadway musical since her appearance in Your Arms Too Short to Box With God in 1982 ...

File this one under "once in a lifetime"! One legend joined another on stage when R&B superstar Patti LaBelle took over the role of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti in Broadway’s Fela!. LaBelle is playing the mother of Fela Kuti, a legend in his own right as pioneer of Afrobeat music. She joined the show on September 14 and was welcomed ...

Bono, Carlos Santana, Paul McCartney… those are just some of the rock stars who count themselves as big fans of legendary musician Fela Kuti. Now 20-time Grammy winner Bruce Springsteen can be added to the list as “The Boss” headed to The Shrine (a.k.a. the Eugene O’Neill Theatre) to jam to the Afrobeat sounds of the Fela ...

The sound of afrobeat will cease to drum on Broadway when the musical Fela! closes on January 2, 2011, at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Beginning September 14, Grammy winner Patti LaBelle will take over the role of Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, currently played by Lillias White, who will give her final performance in the role that won her a Tony nomination ...

Grammy Award winner Patti LaBelle will take her famous voice to the new hit musical Fela! this September, marking the diva’s first return to Broadway since her 1998 solo concert, Patti La Belle on Broadway. According to The New York Post, LaBelle will step in for Tony Award winner Lillias White in the role of mother Funmilayo Kuti while ...

A pop star and a football star: All kinds of famous folks are making their way to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to see the Tony-nominated musical phenomenon Fela! On June 17, crooner Jason Mraz and New York Jets safety James Ihedigdo (who shares a Nigerian background with the musical’s title character Fela Kuti) enjoyed a performance of the ...