THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL – The Queen of Rock and Roll has birthed a new star.
“Simply the best. Better than all the rest.”
Truer words cannot be spoken about this bio-musical. I only have one regret after seeing the show, I never got to see Tina Turner live in concert before she retired. But I have to say, the performance that Adrienne Warren gives in TINA: The Tina Turner Musical was it!! She embodied her in more ways than one.
Tony and Olivier Award nominee Adrienne Warren, also had the lead role of Tina in London’s West End. She brings forth Tina’s style, grace, and amazing vocals as if she was born to play “The Queen of Rock and Roll”. To help tell the story is playwright Katori Hall, who is the Olivier Award-winning playwright of The Mountaintop. She expertly crafted the story in such a way that blended every aspect of Tina’s life from childhood to adulthood (Tennessee to St Louis), stardom to the bottom of the charts (Hollywood to Las Vegas) and on top as Queen of Rock and Roll (London).
The stage is draped with a curtain that has a captivating set of eyes looking off into the distance. The Tina we first see is in a state of reflection when the curtain opens. She is getting ready to go on stage for the last performance of her career, but she takes a moment to soak it all in and focus. She begins to chant the central mantra of Buddhism: Man-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. It is known as a vow or an expression of determination, to embrace and manifest the life within you. That is the crowning pinnacle transformation that we see in TINA.
Warren rocks her way through every single song. She doesn’t try to imitate Tina, yet she finds the perfect chord of merging herself and the icon to give us a flashback of our love for Tina Turner, with a dash of Warren flavor. It’s such a perfect blend you don’t even notice it, yet you’re taken back to Tina live on stage at Wembely singing “Private Dancer” as Act 2 begins.
During the 2 hours and 40 minute performance, we receive a well thought out and conceived narration via 23 songs that span the careers of ‘Ike and Tina Turner’ and just ‘Tina’. The stage shifts seamlessly through every period of her life, no thanks to the directorial genius of Phyllida Lloyd, who also sprinkled her magic on Mamma Mia. There’s a rhythm and flow like you would expect from an Ike and Tina Turner Revue. The arc of the show is brilliantly done and builds with each song. Her life begins with “Nutbush City Limits”, which is an ode to where she was born and takes us through her moments of abuse at the hands of Ike with a song so telling of how she felt, “Be Tender With Me Baby”.
My favorite scene takes place when Tina meets Phil Spector for the first time in the recording studio and records what is considered to be his best work ever produced, “River Deep – Mountain High”. There’s not much to the scene in terms of design, it’s simple yet reminiscent of what the inside of a studio back in the 60s would have looked like. It’s designed in a way, where the audience feels as if they’re behind a glass wall watching history take place or maybe we were transported in a time machine. It’s as though I was there, watching Tina come into herself.
“Just give them to her now”, is what someone sitting behind me screamed during a standing ovation of the ensemble’s final number. I knew what he meant. Just give Warren the Tony Award she deserves for this outstanding role.
But let’s not forget Daniel Watts who plays Ike Turner. His performance is definitely one for the records as well. He has swagger and style like Ike and truly holds his own in this production. We might not be talking about him much because of whom he represents to Tina, but like Tina Turner once said in an interview, her legacy is her endurance. Anna Mae Bullock, became Tina Turner and now she’s TINA.
And it’s “Simply The Best”.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is currently playing at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.
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