The much talked about staging of Queen Moremi the Musical in Lagos has just been concluded. The outing, according to the organisers , was a huge success, paving the way for the next staging at Easter and abroad. The show premiered on December 21, 2018, and ran till January 2, 2019 at the Terra Kulture, Lagos. On December 23, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ogun First Lady, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, the PDP governorship candidate for Lagos State, were among those who watched the command performance.
The cast included Nollywood stars and regular theatre actors.
Speaking on the success of the Lagos outing of the musical, the Global Ambassador of Queen Moremi Ajasoro Initiative, Princess Ronke Ademiluyi, said: “The musical has been very receptive more than we thought. In the beginning, the idea was conceived to join the Moremi project but we recorded a huge success beyond that.”
According to her, creating a musical out of the story of Moremi came about in December 2017.
“We approached Bolanle Austen-Peters to direct the production but she refused because of the traditional and cultural aspects of it. At the said time, she was also engaged in contemporary projects like Saro, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens among others. Doing a traditional project then was a ‘no, no thing ’ for her. And that took us a lot of going back and forth to convince her until Her Excellency, Mrs. Amosun, came into the picture to convince her to accept. And the outcome is what we have just seen as Queen Moremi the Musical,” she said.
“We had 21 shows and all the tickets were sold out. Right now, people have started to book for Easter shows. After that, we will be having a global tour that will take us to the United Kingdom, the U.S., some African countries and some states in Nigeria.
“The show went beyond our imagination. Some people booked ahead of time. Some booked from abroad, came home to watch the show severally, and at some point, people were asking why it shouldn’t be more than two shows per day, and I had to say that the cast needed a break because they are human. Overall, it was a success.
“It is phenomenal and as an Ambassador of Queen Moremi Ajasoro Initiative, it is my role to look for strategic partners to portray the name of Queen Moremi out there which is what it is all about.
“And we have been approached by some people on the film project of Moremi which is the next project that will be a Hollywood blockbuster movie.”
On the issue of space challenge and overbooked tickets for the show, she stated: “We are looking at different options to explore, having witnessed the surge at the just concluded outing. The entire production team will put head together to figure a way out of the space challenge. “We saw that people booked in advance even when the seats were not enough. This will be taken care of in the Easter outing.”
Moremi the Musical, an initiative of House of Oduduwa Foundation, is supported by Rejuvenee and produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters Production (BAP). The musical has the blessing of Ooni Ogunwusi as part of his vision to revitalise the cultural heritage of the Yoruba race.