Hit Broadway musical Fela! will transfer to the West End this November, making its UK premiere at The National Theatre in London. Fela! will open in the Olivier, marking the NT’s first musical production for years. Theatre tickets will be on sale soon.

The show centres Fela Kuti, a political activist and afrobeat musician in Nigeria. It combines passion, power, revolution and energy in an explosion of afro music and dance, billed as “the most original new musical on Broadway”. The show has received enormous acclaim on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, where it opened in October 2009.

The stars of the Broadway musical, Kevin Mambo and Sahr Ngaujah, are set to reprise their shared role as Fela Kuti for the London performances. Director and choreographer Bill T Jones (Spring Awakening) is also expected to return to the show. Book for Fela! is by Jim Lewis with music from Jordan MacLean and Adam Johnson.

‘Jay Z’ Carter, Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith produced the show on Broadway, which features a collection of Fela Kuti’s best known songs including ‘Zombie’, ‘Everything Scatter’ and ‘Water No Get Enemy’ in “a hybrid of concert dance and musical theatre”.

Fela! will run in repertory with Hamlet, starring Rory Kinnear.

Previous musicals from the NT include Jerry Springer the Opera (2003), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2004) and Caroline or Change (2006).

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