Fela Anikupalo Kuti, a native Nigerian, was a charismatic musician/composer/performer and an iconic activist in his homeland. His pioneering music, called “Afrobeat,” a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies, made him a worldwide entertainment sensation from the ‘60s to the ‘80s, and his political struggles during that same time only increased his reputation. When he died in 1997, a million people attended his funeral.

Bill T. Jones, a notable New York choreographer for 25 years, and a recent Tony- Award-winner for Spring Awakening, is directing and choreographing a new musical based on Fela’s life and music. Co-credit for the piece’s conception goes to Jones, playwright and dramaturge Jim Lewis and the lead producer, Stephen Hendel, an avid fan of world music and a particular fan of Fela. There is a cast of 18, with Sahr Ngaukah (pictured above) in the role of Fela. Brooklyn based Antibalas will play Fela’s music. I spoke with Jones (who co-wrote the book with Lewis) on a Sunday by phone.

Hi Bill, thanks for talking with me on your day off. Is this a biographical show?
No, it’s not a biopic. That was the first thing we decided. It’s a freely conceived take on a very complex life. I call it a work of imagination, with a lot of dimension.

Fela was known both as a world musician and a social activist.
In the late ‘60s, there were protest singers, like Pete Seeger and others, but I don’t think he (Seeger), and others like him, were ever harassed like Fela was. I can’t think of a major artist who would have had to face being jailed over 200 times, was tortured and vilified, and literally attacked by government soldiers. Fela was that.

And yet, after he had attained world recognition as a musician, in the late ‘60s, he decided to stay in Lagos in the ‘70s to play music and critique the government.
Yes, and that’s the crux of the show which we are concerned with. We are focusing on the fatal attack on his compound. [Ed: in 1977, the government soldiers attacked his compound, set fire to it, fractured Fela’s skull and threw his 82-year old mother out a window; she later died from her injuries.] Fela and his singers and members of his commune were attacked. Tear gas was used. Fela was left nearly dead and his hand was crushed.

So that is when the show begins, the attack on the commune in 1977?
We have invented an imaginary evening after this event. Fela, after much soul-searching, decided to stay in Nigeria.

He could have gone elsewhere.
Ginger Baker of The Creem came to him, so did Paul McCartney. He could have set up a studio in New York, Paris or London.

But he stayed.
This is our fictional take on him -- at this crossroad. We watch him go through several personifications. First, there is Fela the performer and then there is the Fela of his internal, spiritual nature, where he has a near vision. He goes out of real time and into a real vision. And there is another Fela, of Yoruba, and the Land of the Orishas. We have conflated the last 20 years of his life into one near-hallucinatory event.

What happened during that time?
His political ardor cooled, and he turned more to cultural, social and religious pursuits. He called it a pursuit of “The Authentic African,” freed from Christianity, Islam and Western mores. This was the world he was concerned with. It took him to his death. The show is set in 1978 and he died in 1997.

37 Arts, 450 W. 37th St., (212) 560-8912. Previews July 29, opens Sept. 4-21. Tues., 7 p.m.; Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m. $51.25, $76.25.