Review by Martha Heimberg
Tina — our “Proud Mary” — was an amazing woman and a force of nature in performance. Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, by Katori Hall, tells her personal story woven around the songs she sang that thrilled the world. Ari Groover’s rich contralto voice powers the touring production, brought to the Music Hall at Fair Park by Broadway Dallas.(She shares the role with Parris Lewis).
The show begins with Tina’s childhood as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, in a funny, upbeat opening number at a gospel meeting, with young Anna Mae (crowd-winning Brianna Cameron) singing louder than anybody on the stage and out-dancing all the grown-ups feeling the spirit. Choreographer Anthony Van Laast and a high-energy ensemble get-down on their knees and circle round with their chairs in the air. Oh, yes.
Director Phyllida Lloyd directs with speed and sudden shifts of emotion. Moments later, we’re back home, and Anna Mae’s mother (a feisty, tough Roz White) is scolding Anna Mae for showing off, when her father (Kristopher Stanley Ward) hits her mother, and she and her sister try to pull him off. Throughout the show, it’s hard to watch the honestly portrayed violence of domestic abuse.
You also realize that wife-beating is not unfamiliar to Tina when Ike Turner (smiling, vicious Deon Releford-Lee) hears 17-year-old Anna Mae singing in a local nightclub, sees a star about to explode, takes her on the road with his rock band, and renames her Tina Turner. He ruthlessly bosses her around and slaps her around, while he sleeps around with willing groupies. What little charm Ike displays at the outset, has become pure sleaze by the time she finally leaves him groaning on the floor after an ugly fight. (The program notes that Tina left Ike in Dallas on July 4, 1976, and escaped to what is now the Lorenzo Hotel (then a Ramada Inn) where the desk clerk let the broke, exhausted woman stay.
The glittering song and dance numbers and touching romantic numbers we loved are all here, and are made even more amazing by seeing Tina’s resilience in the face of abuse, loss and racism, especially in touring the south. Tina and her Gran Georgeanna (Wydetta Carter) sing a moving duet in “Don’t Turn Around”, and she and her bandmate Raymond (Gerard M. Williams) are touching and sexy in “Let’s Stay Together”, the best love song in the show.
The big numbers are smartly choreographed for the physically can-do ensemble, costumed with glitz and shimmering style by Mark Thompson, who also designed the simple set, with gorgeously mood-shifting lighting by Bruno Poet and fantastic projection design on scrims by Jeff Sugo. Music Director Anne Shuttleworth and her 12-piece orchestra – about half of the musicians are from Dallas – are behind the scrim on the stage and sometimes enter into the action.
Groover nails it on hits like “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, I Can’t Stand the Rain,” and some 20 other songs and reprises. Of course, “Proud Mary” had us old fans dancing in the aisle and waving our arms, as if. Not to miss.
The show plays about three fast-moving hours. Tina runs through February 4th at the Music Hall at Fair Park. For times tickets, go to the Broadway World website.