Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – struggling against serial coercive control to find her voice and success (Grand Opera House until Saturday 24 May)

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is a story of struggle against coercive control: male violence, male oppression, and talent that didn’t neatly fit into the vision of those (men) running the music industry. 

The title role at Wednesday evening’s performance was played by Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy (who alternates with Elle Ma-Kinga N’Zuzi). Her powerful vocals were electrifying throughout, bringing the singer/songwriter to life on the stage of the Grand Opera House. The young Anna Mae (played by Chizaram Ochuba-Okafor and Chloe Angiama) establishes the potential talent and innate stage presence of the girl who will eventually wow tens of thousands in concerts.

By the time the interval comes round, we’ve watched a mother flee a violent home with one daughter, but leave her other child, the precocious and loud-singing Anna Mae Bullock, to grow up with her abusive father. We’ve seen 17-year-old Anna Mae be talent spotted by Ike Turner, an older music man who changes her stage name to Tina Turner and eventually leaves her no option but to marry him all the while not paying her a wage: marriage may be “good for the bank and good for business” but it isn’t good for Tina. And we see how Tina’s talent outshines his, leading to further confrontations and a big split.

While the second act eventually reaches the point where Tina Turner’s solo career takes off, she must first battle more strong-willed record producers to take back and assert control, while facing up to her mother and the hard-to-shake-off Ike, and meeting a younger man she’ll later marry on her own terms.

Tina Turner’s back catalogue, along with other tracks from the period, are intelligently woven into the linear narrative. Like most jukebox musicals, there’s a background hum of wannabe karaoke singers in the audience adding to the talented on stage backing singers. Mark Thompson’s fabulous set plays with depth and favours soft focus backdrops on the video wall that eventually lifts to reveal the band for the final numbers.

The wigs are awesome. The home aquarium is stellar. The costumes (also Mark Thompson) dazzle, although some of the on stage quick-changes felt close to being exploitative, and seem very prone to delay. Bruno Poet has arranged an extraordinary number of light fixtures facing the audience to create the concert atmosphere for specific moments in the production. The choreography is good, although dancing in slow motion with wooden chairs and an odd creative decision to freeze frame Ike while Tina sings around him felt flat.

Granting boyfriend Raymond (Kyle Richardson) the lead in Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together creates a very solid duet. Giving a wife-beater (Ike played with commitment by David King-Yombo) who hits his children a song with the lyric “Be tender with me, baby” is certainly poignant (and a bit icky). Gemma Sutton gives a great rendition of Open Arms as Tina’s assistant-turned-manager Rhonda. The audience particularly love River Deep Mountain High, I Don’t Wanna Fight, Proud Mary, and the final much-anticipated arrangement of What’s Love Got to Do with It.

The musical’s book by Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins pulls no punches when it comes to depicting the painful life of the singer who would become world famous as Tina Turner. Fans of the artist will be in heaven. Fans of good jukebox musicals will also be impressed with the solid biography.

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical continues its three-week run in the Grand Opera House until Saturday 24 May, after which the tour decamps to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre between Tuesday 27 May and Saturday 14 June.

PS: Note to audiences: talking loudly during the songs is not what others paid to come to the theatre to hear. It’s a long production and won’t finish until quarter or twenty past ten ... although one man behind me said his loud goodbyes and left ten minutes before the interval! And if anyone beside you proffers a misogynist heckle during an emotionally stark and vulnerable scene – “you can stay at my house” was neither smart nor funny – feel free to lecture them when the lights come up at the end.

Appreciated this review? Why not click on the Buy Me a Tea button!