FELA! is in town, Seattle, and if you haven’t already seen the explosive Broadway musical about the life of Nigerian revolutionary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, well, what are you waiting for?

This wasn’t my first trip to the Shine—the famous Lagos, nightclub/compound where the show is set, and where the infamous singer tells the audience he will perform his final show—having seen a performance in L.A. a couple of years ago. The Paramount Theatre is transformed into the colorful nightclub, complete with the band playing onstage before the show begins, evoking a cheerful and welcoming respite from the muted tones of grey Seattle.

The show’s structure is sort of a trip down memory lane, beginning after Fela attained international acclaim as a singer and entertainer while traveling the world with his band, playing the funky, infectious music style he pioneered called Afrobeat. He’d also been arrested more than 200 times while attempting to fight the atrocities and authorities in his own homeland. Some facts about Fela’s life are left out this particular story, and no mention is made of his eventual death from AIDS in 1997, but two and half hours is hardly enough time to capture everything in his iconoclastic life. You might be inspired to learn more about him.

What FELA! does capture, however, is a sense of what his life and times were like, complete with a cohort of talented dancers and musicians, a cadre of beautiful Nigerian “Queens”, and two other important figures—his late mother, Funmilayo, an activist and icon in her own right, and Sandra Isadore, his first African American girlfriend, and member of the Black Power movement.

There’s audience participation as well, as Fela (played by Adesola Osakalumi) instructs his fans in a few pelvic thrusting moves that could be mimicked at a real nightclub. A call and response chant of “yeah yeah” affirms that we’re in the mood, and the call of having “originality no artificiality” conjures a powerful feeling. Fela spread his ideals and political beliefs through the universality of music in a revolutionary way.

Osakalumi is transformative as Fela, giving us a two hour concert while enacting scenes from prison and dreams from Fela’s complex life with verve. Energetic and seemingly tireless, he inspired awe and envy, as well as the rest of the talented dancers in the ensemble who bring Bill T. Jones’ choreography alive. Melanie Marshall’s voice as Funmilayo is music to the ears while guiding Fela through his journey, however Michelle Williams left something to be desired as girlfriend Isadore with her stiff dance moves and over-stylized singing. She was the only real disappointment in the show, but perhaps her hype had something to with the great expectations.

FELA! is still a timely and powerful musical that audiences should see. The themes are universal and the story of Fela’s life, if not all told on the stage, should at least be one we’re all familiar with.

FELA! runs though June 2 at The Paramount Theatre. Tickets and info here; use the code MUSIC20 for 20% ticket discount. There’s also an afterparty with the cast after tonight’s show–free entry with a show ticket.