Patti Labelle brings it in 'Fela!' on Broadway

NEW YORK - It's not until halfway through the first act of the musical Fela! that we get a peek at its newest addition, Philadelphia singer Patti LaBelle.

And then we're not even really sure it's her. But there's something familiar about the flickering image projected on a screen of a woman with her hair wrapped in a gele.

Then we hear the soul-stirring signature moan. And it becomes clear. Mmm-hmm, that's Patti.

In September, LaBelle, 66, joined the cast of Fela!, Bill T. Jones' Tony Award-winning Broadway musical biography of the real-life Nigerian singer and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti. She plays the ghost of Fela's mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

LaBelle doesn't get a lot of stage time, but her performance still has haunting impact: She doesn't sing her parts; she cries them. Throughout the play, Funmilayo periodically and painstakingly paces across the balcony, wailing with each step. It's absolutely chilling - and not at all the Patti we know.

"Patti LaBelle doesn't live here," said LaBelle, of Wynnewood, after a recent performance. "Some people get it twisted. It's like when I'm up there, they want me to sing "Over the Rainbow," and they clap in the wrong places. But that's OK, because these are my followers . . . and people who love me will come and see the play."

Have they ever.

Since LaBelle took over the role of Funmilayo from Lillias White, attendance has increased from about 60 percent capacity to 80 percent. During the same time, ticket sales have been up an average of 30 percent, said publicist Billy Zavelson; the show sold about $549,000 in tickets - the most in the run so far - the week ending Oct. 10.

"We are so very happy to have her as part of the production," said Zavelson, who attributes some of the jump in sales to the discontinuation of discounted tickets - a move the show could make once LaBelle was on board.

Backstage, LaBelle sits at her dressing table dotted with pictures of her close friend, the late crooner Luther Vandross. She wears a flowing floral top with matching wide-legged pants. Back here, she embodies Patti: On her feet are Prada alligator pumps - "these are 10 years old." Her natural nails, albeit short for her, are manicured, painted a sage green. A black, bobbed wig with bangs sits securely on her head. Mr. Cuddles, her feisty, furry shih tzu, circles her ankles.

But she is happy to leave her Patti persona behind on this stage, where she is bespectacled and serious. "I'm not allowed bling-bling. No hair. No wigs. No pumps. I just strip down and put on that muumuu and that gele."

Fela! debuted in November 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York, opening to major fanfare with backing from entertainers Jay-Z, Will Smith, and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

LaBelle saw Fela! in the spring while sitting next to the playwright. It was the first she had heard of Fela's story, and when the show was over, she turned to Jones and told him she wanted the role of Funmilayo.

Four weeks later, LaBelle said, Jones' people called her people and she was cast in the role. LaBelle, who last appeared on Broadway in the 1982 revival of Your Arm's Too Short to Box With God, had two weeks of rehearsal.

"It's a wonderful thing to come to work with someone new and right away she snatches it up, figures it out, and puts her own spin on it," said Kevin Mambo, who plays the lead of Fela. "This is real, real artistic professionalism and I get the best seat in the house. I sit at her feet and watch her work every night."

The real Funmilayo, born in 1900, was known as the doyenne of women's rights in Nigeria. She was a teacher who worked on political campaigns and was the first woman in the country to drive a car and ride a bike.

Her son Fela, inspired by Funmilayo's fight for justice, rebelled through music, and in the process created a new sound in the late 1960s known as afrobeat. He created a commune and a recording studio called the Kalakuta Republic, which he declared independent of Nigeria. He also founded a nightclub called the Shrine.

In 1977, Fela's album Zombie became a hit in Nigeria, but it also angered the government. Consequently, the Kalakuta Republic was attacked by 1,000 soldiers, leaving Fela severely beaten along with many of the commune's members. Funmilayo was thrown out of a window, and she later died of her injuries at 77.

The musical is set in the Shrine after the attack; Fela is about to give his last performance. He sings about his history, how he pioneered afrobeat, how he loves marijuana and women. At one point in his life, Fela claimed 27 wives.

But the ghost of Funmilayo is Fela's conscience. She haunts him, reminding her son of his purpose as a revolutionary.

Funmilayo comes to life in the second act, and it is here that LaBelle takes the liberty of putting the Patti back in what is the production's most poignant performances.

"I changed the lyrics in some points there," LaBelle said. "I added the words 'my son.' I also added 'drip drop let the rain fall' . . . I added a Patti LaBelle swirl."

You can't, after all, completely disguise a diva.

Gathering up Mr. Cuddles, LaBelle wraps herself in a black full-length fur coat, and makes her way to the Escalade waiting for her outside.