Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Pays Shining Tribute to Late Icon
When we first entered the San Diego Civic Theater for a showing of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, the curtains were covered with thinly traced gold lines that made up the face of Tina Turner. Having just lost the icon within the last few months, the energy in the auditorium was buzzing, and although we were there to see a show that had made its debut years ago, it still felt like we were part of a memorial and we were all there to pay our respects to the late entertainer.
After the lights flickered their final call to usher the eager guests to their seats, the ethereal drumbeat of “Etherland — Sound of Mystic Law” started trembling as the curtains opened, and a group of people surrounded a grown Tina, who sat with her back faced away from the audience.
The chant is later revealed to be a Buddhist mantra that played a pivotal role in Turner’s life, which we quickly learned was full of hurt, abuse, and betrayal.
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Plot
After the initial drumbeats, we’re transported to a church, where a young Anna-Mae Bullock (Ayvah Johnson) joins in the church choir and has one of the loudest and most noticeable voices in the crowd. Following the service, a fight ensues at home, with Anna-Mae’s mother feeling embarrassed and upset at the attention drawn during the service. She ends up leaving with Anne-Mae’s sister, Alline (Lillian Charles as the young, Parris Lewis as the adult). Her father is also overwhelmed with taking care of her, and ultimately abandons her, as well.
We’re then introduced to an older Anna-Mae, (Zurin Villanueva) as she journeys into adulthood and attempts to understand who she is and what she has to offer. Anne-Mae eventually stumbles across Ike Turner (Roderick Lawrence), who quickly scoops her up and turns her into Tina Turner, his musical counterpart.
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Thus embarks the tumultuous 16-year relationship between the two. While some scenes highlight the intensity their relationship has since become known for, including some violence here and there, the gritty and realistic version of Tina’s life is made a little more palatable for the audience, and much of the trauma is watered down to make the situation more digestible — unlike Angela Bassett’s performance in the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It?.
Following Tina finding the strength to leave Ike in the dust, the second act then follows her second rise to fame after a faltering career. She’s struggling as a single mother with two boys, doing her best to make ends meet and never making a dime off of the work she did that made her famous in the first place. She has a back-and-forth with Capitol Records about both her age and her skin color, and we catch a glimpse into the determination she portrayed to get herself back to the top of the charts.
We meet Erwin Bach (Max Falls) along the way, who eventually becomes Tina’s second husband and biggest supporter. They create a hit together for Tina to make her comeback, which is when the famous hairstyle makes its official entrance as she returns to the Number 1 slot where she belongs.
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Music From The Tina Turner Musical
Many of the musical numbers, such as “Private Dancer” and “River Deep, Mountain High” are arranged into the plot with the intention of adding more to the story. While some of these work out, others, such as “Proud Mary,” fell a little short (although the encore performance of “Proud Mary” was a total smash.)
That doesn’t stop the nearly three-hour show from soaring through Turner’s most popular hits, including “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “(Simply) The Best,” and “Let’s Stay Together.” Some of the songs see their full runtime, while others are cut down and offered in little snippets here and there throughout the show.
The songs chosen were well-placed and the arrangments were exciting, especially during the electrifying encore performance(s) where the band got to fully let loose and Villanueva got to act like she was really leading a full concert.
The Tina Turner Musical Performances
By the end of the show, I was exhausted for Villanueva. I felt like I had just spent three hours singing at the top of my lungs in the shower, even though I hadn’t belted a single note, yet I still needed to hydrate. Although her voice was a little shaky in the beginning half of the show, it blew the roof off in the second half. Villanueva’s voice especially excelled in her upper register and anytime it really came down to giving some serious throat.
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
The vocal performance required in this show is so taxing that Villanueva takes turns playing the role every other night with Naomi Rodgers. Her performance is also known to blow the house down, so I’m certain she’s just as strong anytime it’s her turn to take the stage.
Another shining star came from the brief role of Ms. Ayvah Johnson as the young Anne-Mae. She only had a couple of vocal performances throughout, but hers is a voice that will be heard for many years to come, and as she grows and matures, it’s only a matter of time before she lands a lead role for herself.
As for the others, Roderick Lawrence did a great job capturing the intensity of Ike Turner’s personality, Gerard M. Williams smoothly played Raymond, the father of Tina’s first child, and Max Falls captured the love Erwin Bach felt (and still feels) for Tina.
Overall Thoughts On The Tina Turner Musical
When Tina Turner herself wrote an op-ed on the Broadway musical about her life for the Rolling Stones in 2019, she said she was hesitant at first, but was ultimately glad she agreed to be a part of it. “Tina had to be truthful, or there was no point in doing it,” she wrote. “It also had to be entertaining. That was a tall order.”
She said she saw the possibilities as she reflected on her story: a little girl with big ambitions molding into a naïve young woman trapped in a troubled marriage with “nothing but her voice and her dreams and who escaped — just barely — with nothing but her voice and her dreams.” She then becomes a middle-aged singer with “strong winds against her who found success and true love with the man she never thought she’d meet.”
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Turner even advised the original actress who played her, Adrienne Warren, that she was “not Tina. Don’t try to mimic me. You have to be a little bit yourself.”
That advice must have been passed along to Villanueva, who turned the role of Tina Turner into her own and put on an all-star performance that no one in that room will ever forget. The emotional highs, the low blows throughout, and the struggle of the journey of one of the world’s most iconic entertainers was a tribute well-deserved for a star we’ll miss forever, but who will live in our hearts all the same.
