‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ Is Both Confronting And Stunning #REVIEW

Before seeing ‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ I wondered how the producers would be able to tell the confronting and often violent story of Tina Turner while maintaining the entertainment factor to hold an audience over two plus hours. Let me say, ‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ succeeds on both a historical level and an entertainment level. This is brilliant theatre.

Tina’s (Anna Mae Bullock’s) has a dark story. Anna Mae’s mother left her violent preacher father (Floyd Richard Bullock played by Augie Tchantcho) who prayed for his clergy and then preyed on his family.

Anna Mae Bullock goes on to meet Ike Turner (played by Giovanni Adams) who changes her name and she becomes Tina Turner (played by Ruva Ngwenya) and the singer of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.

Ike is basically a philandering, violent arsehole who beats Tina who eventually leaves him, has no money, and has to rebuild her career from scratch. She meets an Australian, 27-year old Roger Davies (played by Mat Verevis), who is Olivia Newton-John’s manager in this story but fun fact: started out in Sydney as the manager of Sherbet, once managed Joe Cocker, Tony Joe White and Janet Jackson and currently manages Pink, Cher and Sade.

Roger takes Tina to London where she meets Martin Ware (of British Election Foundation and a founding member of The Human League) and another Aussie songwriter Terry Britten who presents her with his song ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’. She doesn’t like the song and it takes a lot of talking her into it.

With Britten, Ware and Davies creating a new Tina sound, the result was the comeback album ‘Private Dancer’ which reached no 3 in the USA, no 2 in the UK and no 7 in Australia in 1984. Tina the star becomes Tina the superstar and the album goes on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide.

The dark storyline of part one of the show does have a happy ending in part two. The show timestamps Tina meeting German record executive Erwin Bach in London during the recording of ‘Private Dancer’, but Fact Check: In reality, the couple met two years later in 1986 in Düsseldorf. Edwin and Tina became lifelong partners. After being together for 27 years they married in Switzerland in 2013. Tina died in May, 2023. She did get to see this production when she attended the Broadway premiere in New York in 2019.

‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ spans Tina’s life from childhood to the mid 80s. Once she is back on her feet in the mid 80s, it is time for the audience to get on their feet with a triple whammy from “What’s Love Got To Do With It’, followed by ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ to ‘(Simply) The Best’.

The believability for this show falls solely on the shoulders of Ruva Ngwenya. Because Tina Turner is such an icon, portraying Tina accurately forms the credibility of this show. Ruva is an excellent Tina.

The rest of the characters in Tina’s story range from kinda known to unknown so the actors have more room to manoeuvre. Giovanni Adams’ portrays Ike Turner with all the nastiness the man truly was. You only have to look at Sean Combs today to see violence has been an obscene part of the music business for a long, long time.

Mat Verevis (Roger Davies) and Matthew Hamilton (Terry Britten) have the two most likeable roles in the show.

A live band, led by Musical Director Christina Polimos, recreates an authentic musical adaptation of what we know from Tina recordings.

Because of the violence and dark story line of the Ike Turner era in Part one of those show I would not recommend it for children.

‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ is a must see show for Tina fans or people who want a strong story in a fast-paced show.

TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL
Princess Theatre, Spring Street, Melbourne
Information and Bookings: www.tinathemusical.com.au

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Tagged as: 60s, Australia, blues, rock, soul, The Tina Turner Musical, theatre, Tina, Tina Turner, USA