Fela!

Critics’ Reviews

"Fela! is more than a musical; it’s an ecstatic phenomenon."

Review by David Cote from Time Out New York

"Delivering exuberant storytelling through song and dance, Fela! achieves something closer to the essence of great musicals than many more conventional shows have of late."

Review by Elysa Gardner from USA Today

"The concert format is punctuated with explosive dance numbers performed with an uninhibited joy and intensity by a fiercely talented ensemble. [Director, choreographer and co-creator] Bill T. Jones has delivered tight, sizzling staging that hits you with the force of a tidal wave."

Review by David Sheward from Backstage

"The show's raison d'etre is the music, ferociously performed by Antibalas, a Brooklyn-based band. [The] choreography...is outstanding and beautifully performed by a hardworking, sexy ensemble."

Review by Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter

"As performed by 10 players, mostly members of Brooklyn’s Antibalas Afrobeat band, almost constant music makes “Fela!” as perfect a concert as it is a show. Bill T. Jones, who also directed, has devised spectacular African-inspired dances that fill every centimeter of the two-tiered set, repeatedly spill into the auditorium and seem barely containable by the theater’s walls."

Review by John Simon from Bloomberg News