After an unforgettable run that saw 301 performances and 301 standing ovations, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is preparing to take the final bow of its Syndey season on Sunday, January 28, 2024. The show is a record-breaker for Theatre Royal Sydney, becoming the longest-running production since the iconic venue’s reopening and shattering sales records during its launch in May 2023. The national tour kicks off in Perth in February, followed by seasons in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Read on for our critic's review...
Australia loves Tina Turner – the one-two punch of her appearance, both in the film and on the soundtrack of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, and the use of her cover of Bonnie Tyler’s The Best to promote the NRL back in the day made sure of that. Will they love Tina, the acclaimed jukebox musical based on her life and, naturally enough, packed with her tunes? Well, yes, probably – as long as your appreciation of that music outweighs the shortcomings of the writing.
That writing is by Pulitzer-winner Katori Hall, along with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, but as a piece of drama Tina struggles to encompass the life of its subject. We begin in Tina’s childhood in Nutbush, Tennessee, when the pre-fame protagonist – then simply Anna Mae Bullock – was deserted by her mother (Ibinabo Jack). We then follow her through her soaring career and abusive, drug-sodden relationship with Ike Turner (a role carried well by Tim Omaji), her eventual break from him, forays into solo work, and ultimately her ascent into superstardom under the stewardship of Australian manager, Roger Davies (Mat Verevis, doubling down on Australianisms), along the way finding love with German PR rep Erwin Bach (Matthew Prime). They’re still together, as it happens, and both are executive producers here.
Ruva Ngwenya is revelatory, fully embodying the real deal’s strength, charisma, power, and talent.
The issue is that Tina has difficulty covering so much territory, even at two hours and 45 minutes (interval included), which means that Act One gallops through the decades, each short interstitial scene between musical numbers being reduced to largely expository dialogue as characters clue us in as to where we are in the story. Add to that the fact that the story covers so much dark, serious territory – domestic violence and abuse, drugs, endemic racism, attempted suicide – and it feels at times that those themes are being treated lightly. They’re the price we have to grudgingly pay to get to the good stuff, and the show gets them out of the way quickly and efficiently, but sacrifices emotional impact to do so – compare the result to what we’ve read in Turner’s three autobiographies, or in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It?
But then we do get to the good stuff, which is the music – and, based solely on its songs, Tina is an all-timer. How could it not be? ‘Proud Mary’, ‘River Deep - Mountain High’, ‘Private Dancer’, ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’ – we even get ‘The Best’ and Thunderdome’s ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ for extra local appeal, with 23 songs in total over the course of the show. The second act improves on the first, not having to cover so much and instead focusing on Turner’s rise from Vegas perennial to stadium-filling rock goddess.
As the adult Tina, Ruva Ngwenya is revelatory, fully embodying the real deal’s strength, charisma, power, and talent. Here we follow the creation of ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’, the lead single off turner’s comeback album Private Dancer. Director Leah Howard and music director Christine Polimos do something clever here, taking us through several iterations of the signature tune before revealing it as the powerhouse ballad we all know. Turner’s ascension to stadium status is accompanied by the show’s band taking the stage, the final movements of the show more tribute act than musical – which brought the packed opening night audience to its feet.
Set and costume designer Mark Thompson keeps the former spare and the latter flashy, letting a simple, elegant backdrop and a few props set each scene, helped by projections by Jeff Sugg and impactful washes of light by Bruno Poet. The occasional use of a revolving stage element is the only noticeable flourish, but the clear intent to foreground performance, and the songs pay dividends. Anthony Van Laast’s choreography is exciting, reaching a crescendo of referential movements by the explosive final act.
Tina is flawed, it must be said, and it’s tempting to imagine how Turner’s story might fare in a different on-stage presentation – a one woman show, perhaps? But its strengths outweigh its weaknesses. It strains under the weight of some of its subject matter, particularly in the first act, but more than brings it home in the second. Come, then, for the music – but if you’re after Tina’s story, it’s better told in her own voice.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is playing now at the Theatre Royal Sydney. The season has been extended through to January 28, 2024. For tickets and info visit tinathemusical.com.au.
Watch our behind-the-scenes video here.
