The Playhouse, Edinburgh
Four stars
When little Anna Mae Bullock caused a commotion in church when she started freestyling on the hymns, her destiny as a soul singer with one of the biggest voices in town was assured. Or at least that is how this epic homage to that little girl who morphed into Tina Turner tells it, with a bunch of greatest hits to go with it. One of them, Nutbush City Limits, is here the number that got Anna Mae into so much trouble. Reinvented here from the go-go groove created with her creative partner, husband and nemesis Ike Turner, it becomes the gospel hymn that always lurked beneath.
Now embarking on its first UK tour since its initial West End run in 2018, Phyllida Lloyd’s production of a book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins is a warts and all look at Turner life and work that sees her combat prejudice, misogyny and abuse to become a triumphant figure.
Deserted by her angry mother and left with an even angrier father, Anna Mae gives vent to her voice when visiting her sister, who takes her clubbing. Anna Mae’s vocal talents are spotted by Ike Turner, who promptly renames her. This is both the first step in her becoming a legend and a sign of how she will be controlled.
Only when Tina records River Deep Mountain High with Phil Spector does she pluck up the courage to stand alone. Leaving aside any ironies concerning Spector’s own peccadilloes, we see Tina through her lean years before she goes global. As Tina moves from pop-soul sensation to showbiz survivor and the stadium sized balladeer of her 1980s second coming, no matter how many times she’s beaten – by record company sexism, racism, and ageism, or else the back of someone’s hands - she always bounces back.
All this is brought home by a superlative live band led by Sarah Burrell, and accompanied by a set of routines choreographed by Anthony Van Laast, Despite the essential presence of both, Lloyd’s production takes its time, allowing each scenario to breathe despite the necessarily fast moving set-up.
Much of the second act sees 1980s Tina coming to terms with how the music business is run once she decamps to England for a far glossier, machine age endeavour than the one in which she first built her career. There is even a cameo from fictionalised versions of Yorkshire accented pop conceptualists Heaven 17 to bamboozle her, as they help kick-start her career en route to the show’s blockbuster sized finale.
At the heart of this on Wednesday night was a remarkable performance by Elle Ma-Kinga N'Zuzi, one of the two actresses who alternate as Tina. Such are the demands required of someone who can sing, dance and act like Turner while carrying the full weight of the show’s narrative drive. N’Zuzi was supported magnificently by a big cast who included David King-Yombo as Ike, Letitia Hector as Tina’s mother Zelma, and an irrepressible Lola McCourtie as the young Anna Mae.
This is played out on Mark Thompson’s floorboard based set, with Jeff Sugg’s projections illuminating a swirl of clubs and TV shows in kaleidoscopic fashion.
With Turner co-executive producer of the show with her partner Erwin Bach from the start, her story might be regarded as something of a purging. Since her death in 2023, it is also a vital part of her legacy. For all its feelgood euphoria, The Tina Turner Musical is a warning – to women artists, and black women artists in particular – about how a still toxic music industry can kick you when you’re down, only acknowledging your worth once they see dollar signs once more. Turner’s grandiloquent reinvention remains an inspiration in an epic display that suggests the jukebox musical has come of age.
ends
Comments