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Show: Tina – The Tina Turner Musical
Society: London (professional shows)
Venue: Aldwych Theatre, 49 Aldwych, London WC2B 4DF
Credits: Featuring the music of Tina Turner. Book by Katori Hall (with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins). Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Stage Entertainment, Joop Van Den Ende and Tali Pelman in association with Tina Turner.
Type: Sardines
Author: Ned Hopkins
Performance Date: 18/04/2023
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical
Ned Hopkins | 19 Apr 2023 17:55pm
What a fabulous party we had last evening celebrating the fifth anniversary in the West End of Tina, the cotton-picking-to-riches story of the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’! A gala performance, presented in partnership with Women’s Aid, the excellent charity which does great work supporting victims of domestic abuse. It was good to be in the packed, cheering house of a long-running show too, when so many London theatres are struggling with the after-effects of the pandemic and the current economic downturn.
Though an adolescent of the ‘sixties, I must confess to being more a fan of Carole King’s music (her musical biography Beautiful also ran successfully at the same theatre prior to Tina) than a hardened rocker. But I was soon won over by the songs associated with the singer which had been sensitively selected to advance the story and/or comment on the characters’ emotions. If I’d been expecting a run-of-the mill juke-box show, Tali Pelman’s front-of-curtain speech, kicking off the evening by emphasising its theme of survival, prepared me for the well-integrated musical drama it turned out to be. Indeed, parts of the first half, pun intended, pulled no punches in showing how Tina was abused by both her father and later Ike Turner, her mentor, professional partner and bullying, cocaine-addicted husband.
With a well-crafted book by Katori Hall (with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins) and direction in the safe hands of the great Phyllida Lloyd, the show is a fairly accurate version by of Tina’s life and struggles. It begins with an ensemble choral scene with the then Anna Mae Bullock’s family and members of the poor but strict Baptist community in Tennessee into which she was born. Later, of course, Tina would adopt Buddhism. It provides a vivid image of her humble and oppressive start in life which stays with you as her life grows increasingly glamorous – and fraught.
But the musical wouldn’t have survived if it had been all doom and gloom. Glittery production numbers showing the singer in action backed by singers and dancers alternate with the darker moments. Even then the razzmatazz serves to show how Tina’s onstage life often contrasted with the harsher reality of her personal battles: shackled to an exploitative partner in a racist society and financial worries. An uncomfortable scene where she’s intimidated by a couple of white policemen is a sharp reminder, given far more recent events, that the work of the civil rights movement is still far from over.
Anthony Van Laast’s choreography keeps the show on its toes and nicely demonstrates Turner’s distinctive funky style, while veteran designer Mark Thompson’s stylish contribution also helps fuel the pace as one telling event in Tina’s life dissolves into another.
Traditional scenery is often used against photographic or video images. I particularly liked the number I Can’t Stand the Rain with silhouettes of people clutching umbrellas scurrying Lowry-like along a projection of a London bridge. An effective subtextual image is the repeated use a door, suggesting how they open for Tina only to close behind and entrap her.
If I had a slight problem visually it was with some of the everyday costumes. Timeframes were necessarily telescoped, and I was not always clear which period we were in. But Tina has enjoyed a very long career. She was born in 1939 with her first period of success at the end of the ‘fifties yet didn’t really enjoy superstardom until the ‘eighties.
The producers are to be congratulated on keeping the show so fresh. To adapt a comment first said about the iconic Gertrude Lawrence, ‘vitamins should take Elesha Paul Moses.’ Rarely off stage for longer than it takes to unzip one costume and slip into another, the current Tina could not be bettered – a brilliant actress, singer, and dancer. She is well-supported by: Caleb Roberts (Ike), Paula Kay (her mother), Charis Alexandra (her sister Alline), Kelly Hampson (her friend Rhonda), George Jennings (Roger who becomes her manager) and Joseph Richardson (Erwin, later Tina’s second husband). There is also a likeable, talented clutch of youngsters as the younger Tina and Alline and her sons.
Tali Pelman reminded us as the start of the joy of surviving. The joyous ten minute explosion of song and dance from the cast which concluded the show and the rousing response from the audience that accompanied it, said it all. I look forward to attending the tenth anniversary party for this great musical about one of music’s greatest legends and survivors.