Honest. Defiant. Inspiring.
In her own confession, Tina Turner didn't really want or need a musical telling the story of her life. She's doing it for the fans. I don’t think they are going to be disappointed.
Starring Adrienne Warren as Tina Turner and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Ike Turner, my review must delve into Tina’s life story, just as the book writer Kotori Hall and director Phyllida Lloyd did. That’s where the heart of this honest musical lies.
As the curtain rises, Tina opens with the familiar vamp of The Best, teasing you with the silhouette of the Tina Turner you have come to see. But within seconds, you are transferred back to 1950 and her humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee, where we meet 11-year-old Anna-Mae Bullock and her family with a hearty gospel rendition of Nutbush City Limits.
An abusive father led to her fiery mother Zelma Bullock (played by Madeline Appiah) walking out and taking with her, favoured sister Alline. Her father quickly moved on and remarried leaving Anna-Mae with her grandmother, Gran Georgeanna (played by Lorna Gayle). 5 years later, with some encouragement, Anna-Mae reunites with her mother and sister in St. Louis. There, she soon met the irresistible Ike Turner who invited her to join his band. By his say-so, their name became The Ike and Tina Turner Revue.
Touring across the country brings its financial strains and Ike could see that the band was at risk of losing their greatest talent, the talent that he had created. It was then that he persuaded (or bullied) Tina to marry him in order to secure her loyalty. This wasn’t a marriage of love. This was control. The musical portrays this very clearly and the production team certainly don’t shy away from those hard-hitting scenes of physical abuse. Emotionally, this takes you there and you can feel every knock. Every beating. Every song seamlessly transports you on this rough long-suffering journey through Act 1 including notable hits River Deep, Mountain High and Proud Mary leading us to two major milestones in Tina’s life which are portrayed by Warren with genuine raw emotion. Tina’s drug overdose and attempted suicide in 1968, and then in 1976, her vivid and bloody runaway from an increasingly irrational Ike after 16 strained years of abuse. Stripped back, Warren simply captivates the audience as she sings, begs and bleeds I Don’t Want to Fight wearing only her night dress in the middle of the night.
Act 2 continues with Tina’s grittier perseverance for solo success playing slow cabaret gigs in Las Vegas but failing to really make it on her own. Penniless, all she asked for in her divorce settlement was to keep her stage name. Performing songs from her back catalogue with Ike, he was able to secure royalties so the only way for Tina to survive was to find her own sound, her own songs. At 40 years old, it was an uphill struggle until a chance encounter with Roger Davies in 1979 led on to her reinvention both in sound and style. He secured her solo gigs at The Ritz in New York and brought her to Abbey Road Studios, London in 1983 where she recorded a cover of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together, an overnight hit. This led to her 80’s comeback when she went on to record her hugely successful solo album, Private Dancer including the multiple Grammy Award Winning Record of the Year, What’s Love Got to Do with It, a song she initially laughed off after hearing it from synth-pop group Heaven 17 in an understated yet hilarious memorable encounter with Terry Britton (played by Tom Godwin). The story climaxes with the moment you were teased with at the top of the show, Warren dressed in Tina’s red leather mini-dress prepares to go onstage in Rio de Janeiro, 1988, to perform The Best to one of the largest crowds ever recorded in the 20th Century. Before she does, we see her on her hands and knees praying, part of her daily ritual. She is joined by Erwin Bach (played by Gerard McCarthy), a Music Executive she’d met in London earlier, who had flown in to join her on this momentous celebration.
Amongst an excellent well-disciplined and talented cast, Warren plays the role of her life in this show and I’m sure she is guaranteed to pick up nominations for Best Actress in a Musical later this year. She is magnificent! Her energy, passion and commitment to Tina is astonishing. The voice, the choreography including those leg trembles! She is quite simply the best. Holdbrook-Smith also shines in his menacing role whilst Appiah and Gayle both add depth to Tina’s character and bring both humour and emotion to each scene they share with Warren.
The production is slick, the staging is simple. The use of visual projection and a revolving stage are both effective, particularly in tandem with the countless rising doors and backdrops which appear and disappear within seconds.
The music is fantastic with some of the songs being performed by other cast members or with the ensemble joining in on the choruses. It is also a joy to see the band play live on stage during the finale. It’s worth noting an obvious risk with this type of show - whilst many fans are in the audience for a good time, as a regular theatregoer, I would ask them to avoid singing along until the finale. This has the potential to spoil it and can make a show feel a bit amateurish. God forbid, I can just imagine rowdy hen-parties going along to a future Glasgow touring production! The show is structured so that those looking to get up and dance can do so for the reprise of Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits after the bows. I certainly hope that this party atmosphere does not detract from the storytelling.
I’m delighted that I had the chance to see this musical whilst in previews. It’s a thoroughly well detailed jukebox musical which captures the essence of Tina. Don’t expect it to emulate a Tina Turner gig. Don’t expect a Tina Turner tribute act either. This is the real Tina. Honest Tina. Stripped bare in her defiant fight for success. Her journey is long, her battles great, but she fought tirelessly in the face of domestic abuse, sexism, racism and ageism. I left The Aldwych Theatre uplifted, but moreover, I left with a whole new-found respect for Tina. An inspiration to us all.
Tina officially opens on 17 April 2018 and runs until 20 October 2018, although I anticipate this run will be extended due to popular demand and Warren’s irrefutable outstanding performance.
© Images 1-4 each featured @TinaTheMusical twitter account.
