Shaneeka Harrell recalls a day, during her time as a member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, when Jones came into the studio and reported with some bemusement, “I just got out of a meeting about doing a music on Fela. I don’t know why they’re asking me.” But producer and co-conceiver Stephen Hendel clearly knew what he was doing by inviting Jones into this still-incubating project. After several years of workshops, and last year’s rapturously received Off-Broadway run, Fela! has arrived on Broadway as anything but your typical musical. This celebration of the life and music of Nigeria’s Fela Anikulapo Kuti is a pulsating, exuberant experience that invites audiences in from the moment they enter the theater and hears the fantastic sounds of the onstage band, which includes members of Brooklyn’s own Antibalas, longtime purveyors of Afrobeat.

A major reason that audiences at Fela! are anything but passive is the sensational, nearly non-stop dancing that Jones—who’s credited as co-conceiver and co-author of the book, as well as director and choreographer—has put on the stage (and occasionally in the midst of the audience as well). The ensemble includes nine women who represent the Queens—sensual, proud performers and acolytes, who became Fela’s wives in a defiant 1977 group ceremony—and four men who slip in and out of characters in Fela’s narrative, while also dancing with fantastic energy and spontaneity.

Notable among them is Gelan Lambert, a live-wire presence who performs dramatically potent tap solos as well as the invigorating blend of African and contemporary movement that Jones has devised. Unlike Harrell, he had not worked with Jones prior to auditioning for Fela! earlier this year, though he had followed his work. “They wanted a rhythm tapper who could do ballet, modern, African in the Bill T, Jones esthetic. I’m playing a character—J.K. Braiman, Fela’s best friend—who is speaking with his feet,” he explains during a recent interview. With a Juilliard degree and varied performance credits including Martha Graham, operas and Fosse on Broadway, Lambert brought an unusually diverse range of dance ability to the project. He also gained experience with African dance styles through his work as assistant to choreographer and educator Reginald Yates. 

“All the tap solos are improvisations on my part. Bill has given me direction in terms of the feeling that he wants, and then he’s given me room to improvise,” Lambert says. “J.K. was a guitarist who shared in Fela’s beginnings, teaching him about music, having dialogues about political activism. In the show, I’m dancing all the time, but it’s not in a vacuum. It’s expressing who this character is, how he relates to Fela.” Lambert has been tapping since age 12, and sustained it even as he explored other areas of dance. “I’ve kept it up. I wasn’t concentrating on it during my Juilliard years—an intense period of ballet and modern—but once you really work your feet and get it going, it doesn’t necessarily leave you.

“Bill can shape anybody to look really commanding on stage. He’ll give you permission to be fully expressive as an artist, once he feels that you’re a workhorse and you are committed. Once Bill can sense that, and he sees that you’ve proved yourself, he’s going to let you do your thing, within his parameters, in terms of what he needs in that particular moment.”

Harrell, who danced with Jones’ company from 2001 to 2007, took part in the show’s very early developmental process. “Bill has always had a great way of fusing all different forms and styles. Much of his work has had a sense of theater and storytelling within it. He’s always creating dialogue with social or political content. He himself is a politically charged leader, an activist, if you will. I see a lot of parallel lines between him and Fela,” she says.

Each of the women portrays a specific character based on one of Fela’s actual Queens. Harrell goes onstage as Aduni, who danced in Fela’s shows and was with him starting in 1971. “We all have a name, and a history that goes with that name. A lot of these women stayed with Fela after the raid on his Kalakuta compound. I love becoming Aduni, this empowered woman, every night.

“The audiences have been great from day one, whether they come in knowing about Fela or not. Within five minutes of us starting, we’re creating this relaxed concert-party feel within a theater. They just fall into this world of sound and colors. From the start, people are absorbed into this world.” Recalling that day way back when Jones first mentioned the idea of a Fela musical and she immediately aspired to participate, Harrell says, “it’s become beyond anything that we could have imagined.”

Fela!

Open run, Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49 St. (betw. Broadway & 8th Ave.), 212-239-6200.