The show opens with the young Tina (brilliantly played by Elle Ma-Kinga N’Zuzi) singing along in the church, with her powerful voice and vitality seen immediately. Next is at home, where her mother (Letitia Hector) goes with her older sister Arlene (young Shaniyah Abrahams, older Arlene is Georgia Gillam) leaving her with Richard Bullock (Rushand Chambers), who was not her father; her mother had Tina to another man. Tina is played alternate nights by Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy, and hearing how the voice is used, one can see a night off is required to allow it to recover.
Tina is moved to live with her Gran Georgeanna (Claude East), who eventually writes to Tina’s mother to take her back as gran is dying. At 16, she moves in with her mother and sister Arline, who takes her to a club where Ike Turner (David King-Yombo) is performing. Ike is a local heartthrob, and all the girls flock. Tina is only interested in singing, and after grabbing the mike one night to sing, Ike sees his meal ticket and incorporates her into his act, so their relationship begins.
Initially, Tina has a relationship with Ike’s saxophonist, Raymond Hill (Kyle Richardson), who loves her and has his child, small repeat of her mother as she also has a son to Ike. Tina endures 16 years of the adulterous, drug-addicted Ike’s physical and mental abuse before she walks out with only 36 cents to her name.
The first hour and a half, which flies, shows Tina in the first 36 formative years of her life, the second half unfolding her rise to stardom to become one of the greatest cultural icons of all time and eventually finding love with Erwin Bach (William Beckerleg). The great acting, singing, choreography (Anthony van Laast) are all magnificently complemented by amazing video projections (Jeff Sugg) setting every scene perfectly.
Credit also must be given to wardrobe and set (Mark Thompson), wigs and hair (Campbell Young); it is sensible to collaborate with fight captain (Kate Waters) when pulling hair is involved and the actor is wearing a wig! Maybe due to the first night, but the sound levels were inconsistent and varied up and down: it is good to remember when using any accent, one must slow down and deliver clearly or text is lost.
The "Queen of Rock and Roll", born 1939 as Anna Mae Bullock, was a singer, songwriter and film actress with an electrifying stage presence. She began as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike and Tina Turner, divorcing and disbanding in 1976. In 1984, Turner had one of the greatest comebacks in music history, with her multi-platinum album. Its single "Whats Love Got to Do With It" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and chart worldwide success continued with numbers like "Private Dancer"" and "It's Only Love". Her 1987–88 set a Guinness World Record for the then largest paying audience in a concert, 180,000.
She retired in 2009 after completing her “Tina 50th Anniversary Tour”. Her life and career were dramatised in the 1993 film Whats Love Got to Do With It based on her 1986 autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story. Turner reportedly sold around 100 to 150 million records worldwide, and was one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She received 12 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and three Grammy Hall of Fame inductions and was the first female black artist to win an MYV Award to accumulate US$100 million in concert revenue and the first woman to have cumulative concert sales from 1985–2000 tours exceeding US $450 million
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame twice: with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. During her lifetime, she earned an estimated $250 million. What a life, what a career, what a talent, what a woman, what a show, WOW!
The theatre erupted at the finale and, as "Rolling Down the River" blasted out, the entire audience were on their feet, rolling and clapping to the music. Apart from Tina being a tremendous, terrific show, the finale has to be seen and heard to be believed. Tina, terrific woman, terrific show. Superb singing, acting, live music, costumes, wigs and visual presentation, a truly entertaining narrative, what better way to celebrate World Theatre Day.