R&B Recording Superstar MICHELLE WILLIAMS Joins Touring Production of Fela!

Producers Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith and Ruth & Stephen Hendel are pleased to announce that Grammy Award-winning recording artist and former member of Destiny’s Child Michelle Williams will join the national tour of the hit Award-winning Broadway musical Fela! beginning when the sixteen-city engagement kicks off at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC on January 29 (full tour schedule is listed below).  Williams will play the role of Sandra Isadore, activist and love interest to Fela Kuti. 

“I am thrilled to join the cast of Fela!,” said Michelle Williams.  “This musical journey is one that I’ve wanted to be a part of since first seeing it on stage in 2008.  The sounds, the passion and the politics of Fela Kuti have long intrigued me and speak to my heart.  I am simply honored.”

Fela! received three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Choreography.

A triumphant and inspirational tale of courage, passion and love, Fela! is the true story of Kuti, who created a type of music, Afrobeat, and mixed these pounding eclectic rhythms (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies) with rousing lyrics that openly attacked the corrupt and oppressive military dictatorships that ruled Nigeria and much of Africa.  Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s visionary staging, the global phenomenon that is Fela! reveals Kuti's controversial life as an artist and political activist, while at the same time celebrating his pioneering music and commitment to the cause of universal human dignity. "More than a musical, an ecstatic phenomenon" (David Cote, Time Out New York), Fela! "Is a spectacularly inspiring hybrid: theater, music, dance, biography, history lesson, political rally and religious experience.  Sublime!" (Joyce Kulhawik, JoycesChoices-Boston, MA). 

Fela! is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, it was conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel. 

A multi-award winning international singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress, Michelle Williams is best known as a member of the record-breaking R&B and Pop sensation, Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling female groups of all time.