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Everybody say Yeah Yeah!

Fela! the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, is currently the hottest ticket in town, with sold out shows and standing room only audiences at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

Based on the life of the legendary Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1938-1997) Fela! Was conceived by award winning choreographer and writer Bill T. Jones, along with Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel. After being captivated by Fela!, entertainment moguls Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith and “Jay-Z” Carter signed on as executive producers.

Fela Kuti is best known as the innovator of the Afrobeat, a fusion of jazz and traditional Nigerian polyrhythms. The play, set during a concert at Fela's Shrine in Lagos, briefly alludes to some of Fela’s musical influences, including Frank Sinatra to Cuban big band combos.

Fela was a brilliant musician who lived a life of excess; he loved music, marijuana and women. He is rumored to have had up to 27 wives who were his dancers, composers and musicians. British actor Sahr Ngaujah, eloquently and masterfully embodies Fela! the phenomenon. Fela! is a delight for the senses. The cast relates whimsical and tragic stories from Fela’s life through some of the most mesmerizing West African inspired music and dance segments ever seen in the history of Broadway.

Indeed, Fela! The Musical sparked in this writer a deep longing for mental and physical repatriation.

Through his music, Fela Kuti, aimed to not only change the African continent through his music, but also change the world. Through songs such as “Zombie,” “Black President,” “Expensive Shit” and “Sorrow, Tears and Blood,” Fela preached emancipation from mental slavery and constantly raged against the colonial regime in Nigeria. He lashed out against the political leaders, corporations and institutions who raided the African continent for its oil, diamonds and other natural resources. For this, he paid the ultimate price. He was imprisoned and beaten and his beloved mother, Funmilayo Kuti, also an activist who fought against colonialism, died of injuries she suffered after being thrown from a balcony during a raid on his compound. Fela’s wives and family members were brutally raped and tortured.

“My mother was a great teacher and a great leader,” Fela’s character says in the play. “But now, with her gone, being in Nigeria doesn’t make sense anymore; my life doesn’t make sense anymore.”

The women who influenced Fela’s life also dominate the play as forces to be reckoned with. With a lot of soul, British actress Paulette Ivory portrays Sandra Izsadore, Fela’s American lover and confidante. The two met during the Black Power Movement in Los Angeles in the late sixties.

“People’s minds were on fire. My mind was on fire. People were turning on. Sandra was turning me on—to ideas, writers, books I had never heard of in Nigeria. Funny, I had to go all the way to America to learn what my mother had been trying to teach me.”

Funmilayo Kuti is played tenderly and compassionately by vocal powerhouse Melanie Marshall. In” Dance of the Orisha’s,” one of the play’s most powerful moments, Funmilayo guides Fela through the spirit world as he calls on the Yoruba ancestors to guide and protect him.

“Anybody who is in the Bay Area and California, anyone who is listening to what I am saying now; you’ve gotta come see this,” said. Michael Franti, renowned poet, musician, composer, activist and leader of the band, Spearhead (www.michaelfranti.com ).

Franti attended a performance of Fela! on Nov. 25, with his son, Cappy. It was Franti’s first time seeing the play.

“This performance is so moving; it’s so important for today and what’s happening in our world today,” said Franti. “It will give you strength, courage and inspiration and light. Fela was such a force musically, politically and spiritually. Through this play, his spirit comes through. There’s nothing like this. I’ve been to a lot of shows on Broadway—“Spiderman,” and Greenday’s “American Idiot,” which was also amazing. Fela! is like Cirque du Soleil; with the greatest dance performances and the most music all rolled into one. The band, Antibalas, they were just amazing, with such tenderness as such ferocity coming off the stage. It’s the only play I’ve been to where you get to dance and sing, too, and be a part of the play.”

In 2000, Franti and Spearhead opened for Fela Kuti’s son, Femi Kuti at Stern Grove in San Francisco. Franti said he hopes to discuss the play with him someday.

“I’m going to tell Femi that the play is incredible, but I also want to get his impression, too, said Franti. “Femi has lived in the light as well as in the shadow of his father, and he’s had to forge his own path and be his own leader, for his band and for the Shrine and for his family the legacy. I’d want to hear his thoughts and feelings about it. I’m sure that, when you’re as close to somebody who’s your father, you’re going to remember different things on what’s presented. But I really feel that this play shows his father in a beautiful light.”

What: Fela! The Broadway Musical runs through Dec. 11
Where: Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco
Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes (one intermission)
Info: 415-551-2000, http://shnsf.com,