Veteran R&B singer Patti LaBelle was forced to take to the stage for a musical performance with a missing tooth, after suffering a dental emergency just hours before show time. The star was rehearsing for her role in hit musical FELA! on Broadway when one of her teeth came loose and fell out. This didn’t stop the seasoned professional from doing her job though, and LaBelle powered through her performance as the mother of late Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. She returned to the stage in 2010 to take on the role in the musical that charts the life of Kuti as an artist and human rights activist, and centres on the creation of Afrobeat, ‘a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm’, according to the shows website.
LaBelle explained in an interview that she had to carry on with the show and managed the entire performance without anyone in the audience noticing that she was missing a molar. She says ‘I was doing… Fela, my tooth broken and so we couldn’t find it for the next show. I told all the dancers, ‘if you’re dancing and you see a tooth’ – I swear to God, this happened – I said ‘it’s my tooth’. I had to sing without the tooth but nobody (in the audience) could see my mouth.’ Unfortunately, the tooth did not reappear and she said that ‘nobody could find my tooth.’