Asked to name a Nigerian musician, most Americans would answer Sade. Yet it is Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the originator of Afrobeat and an unstinting political agitator, who regularly turns up on lists of the world’s most influential 20th-century pop musicians and whose story is told in Fela!, a new musical off-Broadway.

That the evening works better as rousing concert than smooth narrative will come as no surprise to followers of Bill T Jones, who directed and choreographed the show, and who co-wrote its book with Jim Lewis.