'Tina': Turner's life & hits | London Theatre

‘TINA’: Adrienne Warren as Tina Turner. Photo: Manuel Harlan

TINA
Book by Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar & Kees Rins
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Choreographed by Anthony Van Laast
Through July 20, 2019
Aldwych Theatre
Charing Cross Road
London, United Kingdom
(0845 200 7981), www.tinathemusical.com

By David NouNou

Tina Turner is a force of nature, a hurricane. There are very few artists where you just mention their first name and you see their entire portfolio appearing in your mind. Tina is among those superstars: Aretha, Barbra, Cher, Diana, Donna and Meryl (I threw her in just because she is my favorite actress of all time), just to name a few; no need to say their last name as it would be redundant and stating the obvious.

Tina the Musical is more than a jukebox musical about an artist and her song portfolio inserted into it to recapture nostalgia. Tina actually has a book that is logical and makes sense of the artist’s life. Of course their will be portions or parts that would be missing, that is the nature of a musical; you have to stay on course to hold the audience’s attention

Starting out in Nutbush, Tennessee, her birth place, singing in her father’s ministry, abusive father, deserted by her mother, living with her grandmother and savior, moving to St. Louis at 16 and reconnecting with her mother, marrying Ike and her tumultuous relationship with him, attempting suicide, from stardom to the depths of poverty and depression, going out on her own and rebuilding her career in the record industry and sold-out concerts around the world, to the supernova she is today. It is all here. There is an important aspect that is just mentioned as a blip, and that is her conversion to Buddhism. In fact, it was an integral part of her life; her faith in Buddhism was her salvation.

In addition, there are also her songs that are sung intact and not just snippets: “River Deep, Mountain High,” “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Private Dancer,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” and many more. What is unique here is that the songs come in sequence and are not randomly inserted for the sake of “keep the musical moving” as in the current misconceived Broadway production of Summer – The Donna Summer Musical which I’m sure will no doubt move to London in the near future. The Brits can’t get enough of songbook musicals.

As I stated earlier Tina, the singer, is bigger than life, so the performer that plays her has to capture that essence of Tina’s magnetism. It is not enough to just sing the songs well; you have to transform to be Tina. At the performance we attended, unfortunately the incredible Tony-nominated Adrienne Warren who portrays Tina was on holiday. Being familiar with Ms. Warren’s work, from seeing her in New York in Shuffle Along and Bring It On, I can only imagine the fiery charisma she brings to the character of Tina. At our performance, the role of Tina was played by Aisha Jawando. Credit is certainly due to Ms. Jawando for giving a good performance, singing all the songs well, and the high energy she emits. Unfortunately, she lacks the Tina sparkle that is so unique to Ms. Turner.

A cautionary word to our readers: In London, unlike New York, when a star, lead, or performer is not performing at that performance, there are no announcements, or inserts in the souvenir brochures (what we call Playbills in New York), so you have no idea of which actor is out. We found out about it accidentally as we were picking up our tickets. A big discredit to Ms. Warren, but we enjoyed the show regardless. We can’t wait for Tina to cross the Atlantic and land on Broadway with Ms. Warren as Tina.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 8, 2018
Reviewed at June 21, 2018 performance in London