We love a good night at the theatre, especially when time flies. With a running time of over 2.5 hours with intermission this musical, Tina, still just flew by and had the audience on their feet, at the end. To be honest, the audience would have been just as happy if the lead, Naomi Rodgers playing Tina Turner, had simply recreated a Tina Turner concert. The book for this musical by Katori Hall isn’t bad, it’s just inconsequential. The show originally opened on Broadway on November 7, 2019 and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Younger audiences may be unaware of the details of Tina Turner’s inspirational life, yet for mature audiences, the turmoil of her abusive relationship with Ike Turner and her empowered, solo resurgence was the stuff of tabloid headlines, biographies, autobiographies, and cinematic biopics for several decades. This makes creating a musical on her life almost redundant. I say almost, because without that framework we wouldn’t get to see some amazing actresses giving some amazing performances. We start with Tina as a child, then known as Anna Mae Bullock, singing in church with her daddy preaching and her mother giving her a disapproving look. We watch as her mother takes her older sister and leaves to pursue a life of independence away from her abusive husband and poor little Anna Mae. We see the moment when Tina and Ike meet and watch their abusive, codependent relationship evolve. We get to witness when Tina finally fights back and then struggles to rebuild her life and career in a music industry that sees no value in her. We know she will make it, of course, so the story is not surprising, yet it is dutifully, if only serviceably, told.
Musically, some of Miss Turner’s hits are made to function as “character” songs, sung in narrative musical style to further the plot and convey the character’s emotions and motivations (effectively in Private Dancer, not so effectively in others), yet the songs performed simply as concert numbers are undeniably the highlights of the production, with the full intent of the producers. A character prior to a concert number says “Go on, give ‘em what they’ve been waiting for!” and it’s the truth. Tina, as a narrative musical, is desultory biography enlivened by good performances, yet Tina, as a concert, recreating numbers by a legendary performer, is even better than you dare hope—it’s absolutely fantastic.
Young Anna Mae is played by Ayvah Johnson with charisma and an incredibly powerful voice– I hope we hear and see a lot more of her in the future. Tina’s Gran Georgeanna is played by the indominable Ann Nesby, while Tina’s mother is played by the very talented actress Roz White, whom we have enjoyed on our local stages before. I would be delighted to see an entire musical with these two actresses playing these roles. The ability to imbue a character with a full life in just a few lines is a gift not squandered on these two immensely talented ladies. These characters – young Ana Mae, her mother and her grandmother – reappear throughout the show and are a welcome addition each time they appear. Tina’s sister Alline is played by Parris Lewis with plenty of comedic timing and no-nonsense line deliveries. The ensemble overall blended smoothly, and made an impact with their presence, especially the Ikettes.
Of course, this show would be worthless without an amazing actress, singer and dancer playing Tina. Naomi Rogers fits the bill perfectly. She is a true triple threat who can sing, dance and act far better than anyone has a right to. I cannot emphasize enough the joy of watching her take this journey. She not only channels Tina Turner but reaches out to the audience to get us to feel with her each high and low. By the time the evening was over I wanted to know why I had never seen her before and wanted to know what she will be doing next so I can get tickets early! I doubt that there are many roles in theatre that are more demanding than this one, and she played it extremely well. Some of the highest energy moments come at the end of the of the show and her performance never falters to the last note.
I found myself often wishing the production values of this tour rose to the talent of these amazing women, but unfortunately that was not the case. The sets often look cheap and thrown together. Some of the wigs in the show looked flawless while others were just embarrassingly bad. I desperately wanted to find a cd of Tina Turner music and throw it at the sound mixer to remind them that vocals are more important than instrumentals in her music. The saving graces on the production side were the lighting design by Bruno Poet and the costume design by Mark Thompson.
It was an immensely enjoyable evening that I would gladly repeat.
Running Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical plays through October 23, 2022 at The National Theatre— 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at 800-514-3849 or purchase them online.
