David Mirvish/Tina, The Tina Turner Musical, book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, featuring the songs of Tina Turner, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, closes July 28. Tickets here.
There sure are a lot of Tina Turner fans in Toronto. The packed house screamed and whooped and hollered their approval with every new song. You could feel the buzz in the theatre. It was palpable.
But then, the lady in question had a huge personality and an even bigger voice. You’d have to be made of stone not to be swept up in the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s charisma.
There are two kinds of juke box musicals. The first is setting a found songbook around an unrelated story. The second is setting a found songbook around a biography. Tina, The Tina Turner Musical is a perfect example of the latter where we get the superstar’s life told through her own music.
The show opened in London in 2018 at the Aldwych Theatre where it is still going strong. It did have a Broadway run that got caught by COVID, and played for a short time after theatres reopened. The show in Toronto is part of the North American tour.
Turner and her husband Erwin Bach were executive producers on the musical. I did read that Turner was not really happy with the 1993 bio pic, What’s Love Got to Do with It, for the liberties that it took with the truth. Given her involvement with this show, one must assume that what we are seeing are the unvarnished facts. Interestingly, Turner passed away in 2023, but she still gets full credit in the program.
The first act follows Turner as she lurches from one abusive relationship to another — her father, her mother, and husband Ike Turner were not nice people. Nonetheless, she was able to establish an important singing career as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. The first act ends with Turner running for her life from her abusive husband.
The second act features what has been called one of the greatest comebacks in the history of pop music. Turner, now in her 40s, becomes a superstar with the help of a 25-year-old Australian whiz kid producer, Roger Davies. She also meets the love of her life, German-born Erwin Bach, 16 years her junior.
The use of the Turner songbook is interesting. Numbers do occur as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, and during Turner’s comeback, but many of them are used to carry the narrative. Characters get to sing about their feelings or as commentary on the situation, so how the songs were inserted into the story is impressive. For example, Tina sings Don’t Turn Around, first with her grandmother, and later, in a reprise, with her mother, each reflecting a different relationship.
Two of the West End’s leading lights worked on the show — namely director Phyllida Lloyd and choreographer Anthony Van Laast — and these two talents absolutely guarantee quality.
For most of the show, Mark Thompson’s set employs the minimal use of pushed on pieces and props, against a terrific projection design by Jeff Sung. The finale, however, pulls out all the stops with a full stage sound and light show that guarantees an instantaneous standing ovation. The crowd heaped love at that stage.
Two singers are alternating the role of Tina, presumably because she’s never off stage so it’s a heavy demand on an artist.
I saw Zurin Villanueva who can act up a storm, make all the right dance moves, and has a voice that rocked the theatre. Unfortunately, she has a mannered way of delivery, and I could barely make out one word of the lyrics. She might as well have been singing in Swahili, but it didn’t matter because the sheer force of her personality was an assault on the senses. Besides, everybody in the audience seemed to know the songs. So, zero for diction, but a ten out of ten for sheer magnetism.
There are some other very good actor/singers in the cast. Crystal Joy was a sympathetic Gran Georgeanna, Gigi Lewis was her spirited older sister Aline, Sarah Bockel did a nice turn as the put upon manager Rhonda, while Brianna Cameron as the young Anna-Mae Bullock (aka Tina Turner) wowed the audience with an impressive voice for someone so young.
It was the meanies, however, who, in their way, gave Villanueva a run for her money.
Roz White as Tina’s ice-cold mother Zelma was unrelenting in her cruelty without ever raising her voice. What an awful woman! And as for the deplorable Ike Turner, Deon Releford-Lee was a slimeball on steroids. The actor projected violence even when he was standing still. He was menace incarnate.
In a way, Tina, The Tina Turner Musical, was always going to be an obvious hit. It’s got the story and it’s got the songs. What’s not to like?
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