Many of us grew up listening to Tina Turner's soulful vocals, and learned about her personal life from her revealing memoir, I, Tina, and the 1993 biopic What's Love Got To Do With It? As much as Angela Bassett embodied the queen of rock n roll, the spirit of Tina Turner also lives within powerhouse talent, Adrienne Warren. Her performance in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is electrifying. (Nkeki Obi-Melekwe steps into Turner's dancing shoes during matinees.)
Like the film's iconic opening scene, the play begins with a young Anna Mae Bullock singing in a Nutbush, Tennessee church during the 1940s. Matching her elder counterpart's out of this world vocals, actress Skye Dakota Turner blew the top off the theater with a gospel rendition of "Nutbush City Limits." From that moment, it was clear that Tina is something special.
Helmed by director Phyllida Lloyd and written by The Mountaintop playwright Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, Tina follows the traditional beats of a musical biopic. A teenage Turner, at the urging of her ailing Gran Georgeanna (Myra Lucretia Taylor), leaves behind her southern hometown for St. Louis. Turner moves to the city with her stern and emotionally withholding mother, Zelma (A Different World alum Dawnn Lewis), and sister Alline (Mars Rucker). There is, of course, a significant focus on the icon's relationship and marriage with the volatile Ike Turner (Daniel J. Watts), and their work as The Ike and Tina Turner Revue. However, Lloyd and the writers' handling of the Ike and Tina years, as well as Warren's passionate and tireless performance, elevates Tina to one of the most exquisite performances on Broadway.
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