The tumultuous life of Tina Turner is, quite simply, the stuff of legends. From her humble beginnings as Anne-Mae Bullock in the rural town of Nutbush Tennessee, to her nightmare of a marriage to musician Ike Turner and eventual ascension to the upper echelons of rock ‘n roll royalty, there’s plenty to say about the resilient star whose unmistakable voice and infectious energy helped break down barriers and entertain millions.
Judging by the opening night audience of the Montreal leg of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, our enthusiasm for this icon has far from faded. If anything, we seem hungrier than ever for her particular brand of showmanship and strength, especially in the wake of her passing in 2023. Whether or not this jukebox musical is able to capture her spirit and retell her story in a compelling way is the big question, and not an easy one to answer.
Crucially, the production has found one heck of a performer to step into Tina’s shoes. The astoundingly nimble, pitch-perfect vocals of Jayna Elise simply have to be heard in person to be believed. Though she remains on stage for almost the entire show, the twenty-three-year-old proves an inexhaustible powerhouse of a singer, delivering not only worthy interpretations of Tina’s classic songs but welcome flourishes here and there that make them sound fresh and contemporary. Simply put, her performance allows you to rediscover your love for a great artist all while falling in love with a new one at the same time.
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t Elise’s first brush with stardom, having competed on both America’s Got Talent (under the name Elise Brown) and two seasons of American Idol. Though she may not have won either competition, she’s now making ample use of her acting abilities and dancing up a storm without missing a beat. Elise almost imperceptibly morphs into Turner over the course of the evening, gradually adding the smoky speaking voice and confident strut that became Tina’s signatures, without losing her own special star quality. It’s a safe bet her impressive embodiment of this icon will only propel her to even bigger and better things. See her now or you’ll wind up wishing you had.
The show meanwhile, much like Tina’s life, is a mix of highs and lows. The cast is uniformly strong and committed to the material, particularly Sterling Baker McClary, who has the unenviable task of playing the manipulative and violent Ike Turner. Mark Thompson’s scenic design is sparse, over-relying on large digital projections to transition between various locations like a massive screensaver at the back of the stage. This has sadly become the norm with modern musicals, as producers look to keep costs down and profits up. Understandable as that may be, it doesn’t change the fact that the end result often looks uninspired. They pull out all the stops for the big rock concert-style finale, but by that point, it’s almost too little too late, visually-speaking.
Director Phyllida Lloyd occasionally attempts an atmospheric tableau whenever Tina’s grandmother (Deidre Lang) pops up to chant and remind her of her indigenous roots, but Turner’s spiritual development is so glossed over that these brief appearances have little impact. In fact, if you aren’t paying strict attention, you could easily miss the fleeting moment where Tina is introduced to Buddhism, in spite of that being a crucial plot point, considering how often she meditates throughout the show.
Almost entirely omitted from the plot is the 1978 legal battle which saw Tina successfully win the right to continue using her stage name, in spite of Ike having invented and copyrighted it. Her determination to face off against her abuser and willingness to walk away with little more than a name to show for her years of unpaid loyalty seems like exactly the sort of thing that could be brought to dramatic life best in a musical. Strangely, the showdown only gets a passing mention.
To their credit, writers Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins do a solid job of giving Tina’s abrasive mother Zelma (Elaina Walton) a compelling character arc. Though she coldly abandons her young daughter at the top of the show, she almost redeems herself later by telling Tina to fight back against Ike and defend herself. It would be nice to think that’s where their story ends, but alas, Zelma alternates between supporting and betraying her daughter and taking us all on one heck of a painful rollercoaster ride in the process. Still, most of the book’s focus is squarely on Tina’s romantic entanglements and her struggles within the music industry, so we’re left without an especially intimate or insightful portrait of the artist herself.
It therefore falls to the songs to do much of the heavy lifting. The biggest concern with any biographical jukebox musical is whether or not the subject’s most popular tunes can be used organically to shed light on their experiences. Though Tina’s catalogue is big enough to cover plenty of emotional ground, some moments work better than others. It makes all the sense in the world for a fed-up Tina to sing I Don’t Wanna Fight No More after escaping Ike’s abuse at the end of Act One. It makes considerably less sense for her to belt out the 1985 Mad Max theme We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) while grieving in Act Two, particularly with the ensemble repeating “all we want is life beyond thunderdome”, apropos of nothing. A lyric change was definitely warranted there.
Equally awkward are the unaltered lyrics of Private Dancer, which are sung during a sequence where Tina struggles to pay bills and find work in Vegas. The tune is famously about taxi dancers and prostitution, with lyrics like “let me loosen up your collar” and “I’ll do what you want me to do.” As far as we know, Tina Turner never sold herself to men in order to get by. Why risk creating the impression that she did? Turner’s struggles were heartbreaking enough without adding sex work into the mix. Perhaps we should just be grateful they didn’t attempt to also shoehorn Goldeneye into the proceedings, which would have been an even greater stretch.
Probably the evening’s most jarring sequence unfolds when Tina sings the much-beloved anthem Proud Mary only to be interrupted by Ike’s verbal and physical assaults. The situation escalates to the point that she fights him off and flees across a freeway to safety, all while the song echoes in the background. Spousal abuse is never an easy thing for an audience to digest, especially in a musical, and it must be presented mindfully. The creative team gets points for not shying away from the more gruesome elements of their relationship, but choosing such a bright, uptempo song to underscore such a harrowing moment feels like a big misstep. The tune is reprised later in its full glory, but some might struggle to shake off the uncomfortable feelings it stirs up given its earlier use in the story.
Thankfully, other classic Tina songs integrate rather nicely into the narrative. The sequence depicting her seismic recording of River Deep – Mountain High, produced by the infamous Phil Spector (Bear Manescalchi), is a highlight of the first act, mirroring her devotion to both her music and Ike. Later, as she tries to restart her career post-divorce, the slow build-up to What’s Love Got To Do With It beautifully captures her growing attraction to kindhearted young music executive Erwin Bach (Steven Sawan) all while hinting at her disillusionment with the industry that views her as obsolete.
It’s truly in the second act that the show starts to pick up steam, as Tina slowly finds new collaborators and the willingness to trust the gentle and encouraging Erwin. Once the musical reaches its climax, the driving beat of The Best – which is teased throughout the show – explodes into a full celebration that gets toes tapping and tears flowing.
Again, much of the credit for that jubilant finale goes to Jayna Elise, who radiates a genuine love for performing and for Tina herself. As she leads the cast in an extended encore, you’ll be hard-pressed to resist the urge to shimmy and shake right along with her. If the rest of the show doesn’t quite manage to shine as brightly as the Queen of Rock ‘N Roll once did, at least its leading lady does. And then some.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical plays at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal through February 9th and then continues on to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre from the 11th to 16th and London’s Budweiser Gardens on the 18th and 19th. Check out Jayna Elise’s Instagram account and the official website of the Tina Tour.