MurphyMade
Before I sat down in my seat for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, whose national tour is making a stop this week at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre, I thought to myself, ‘I cannot be the right person to talk about this.’
When you walk in, you can’t help but notice disco balls. Yes, the two planted disco balls adorned to the lighting rig by the musical’s production design team, but disco ball earrings. T-shirts. I even noticed one phone background that featured that phone’s owner dancing below one.
I’m not usually associated with disco balls.
Then there’s the fact that I knew next to nothing about Tina Turner.
But then again, one doesn’t need to know much about Tina Turner or Donna Summer or Neil Diamond or Cher or The Temptations or Michael Jackson or The Four Seasons or Carole King or Gloria Estefan or anyone they’ve ever made a bio-jukebox musical about. They’ll fill you in with a more concise, but typically two-and-a-half hour long Wikipedia summary.
They will tell you about the humble beginnings and then how this happened and then this happened and then this happened and then rise and then fall and then rise again. And you’ll leave the theatre knowing more about them when you came in – and hopefully dancing your way out the door.
Tina does all that, sure. It informs and entertains. So even if you’re a Tina novice like me, you can still have a fun time.
The biography is brisk, hitting on all of the same elements that every bio-musical hits on: the discovery of music in church, parents walking out, the big break, rise to stardom, domestic abuse, adultery, foreign substances, a fall from grace, a reinvention, quadruple platinum, legacy secured, bio-musical in development.
Do all musicians have the same story or do we just give them the same story? Pulitzer Prize-winning book writer Katori Hall doesn’t seem too interested in answering that question, instead favoring to just give us a good time. Reunite most of the team behind the world’s most famous jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! (particularly director Phyllida Lloyd), and have them put on a damn show. Hit the beats, sing the songs, send us home happy.
It’s still running in London (where it has played since 2018) and played almost 500 performances on Broadway, and now it’s in the midst of the North American Tour that will play 40 cities – bringing that party to your neck of the woods.
MurphyMade
The show starts a pair of Tinas, Naomi Rodgers and Zurin Villanueva, who alternate the role every other night. Our performance gave us Villanueva, a DC-familiar performer (with credits at Woolly Mammoth and a degree from Howard University) who brought this Baltimore house down. Working her butt off for over two hours, you can see why the role is demanding enough to require extra nights off. She craftily rides the grey area between impression, homage, and acting – one that cannot be easy with a figure so iconic. Her singing voice develops more and more into impersonation as the show goes on as she becomes that very icon.
She is joined by a talented cast. Garrett Denver (no stranger to Baltimore having starred in Thoughts of a Colored Man in its pre-Broadway run locally) plays Ike Turner as off-the-rocker as he could possibly be played. Screaming, punching, running around – earning his paycheck in the show’s first act and largely disappearing in the second as Tina goes from Ike and Tina to just Tina.
The crowd also had a fan favorite, quickly fawning over Taylor A. Blackman as Raymond, Tina’s saxophonist and father of her first child. He gets the chance to sing ‘Let’s Stay Together’ and just like those soul singers that sang songs like this, the person on the other side of a Taylor A. Blackman love song is a very lucky person. Not only is his voice beautiful, there’s no doubt he loves the person he’s singing about. Their brief interaction is a highlight of the show.
Failing to capitalize on that is, of course, where the show falters. In trying to rush through the plot points to get to the next cover band moment, the show loses you in the heartstring tugs, many of which happen in the second act. There are more than a number of times where the ensemble vamps on stage or does an extended dance number to give Tina time to change, unveiling a new popular outfit or hairdo or song to sit the audience up again.
That becomes the catch-22 of the show, as all of the best moments happen when someone is singing and so both the audience and the show want to get back to the singing, even if we have to rush through some stuff to get there.
It also employs what I’ve come to deem the ‘Kinky Boots Effect’ – that is, when a show is the most bright and explosive and energetic during … the curtain call. The bows. So despite how you’ve felt about the prior two-and-a-half, you’ve spent the last three minutes standing and clapping and singing along and you can’t help but leave with a smile on your face and a pep in your step. Tina takes it another step further from the show which bears the technique’s name by even hosting a mini two-song concert after the bows and before your exit – highlighting the best parts of the show: the concert atmosphere, the flash and the pizzazz, and, of course, Tina Turner.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical runs about 2 hours and 40 minutes with one 15 minute intermission. Recommended for ages 14+. The production includes loud music, strobe lighting, haze, gun shots, scenes depicting domestic violence and strong language.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical runs through November 20 at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando, New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical montage (Zurin Villanueva)
Stage Entertainment
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
Share this post
