Review: TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL at Capital One Hall
This touring production runs through March 22.
A generally solid but vocally uneven touring production of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, a by-now semi-mythic tale of personal and professional resilience and rebirth, clearly struck a nerve with an exuberant crowd at Capital One Hall Friday night. Musically, the performance didn’t quite find its feet until three-quarters of the way through, but then, like a torch, it lit up, with Darilyn Buntley the hot blue diva flame at its center.
That outcome had not seemed certain, particularly in the first act, when she sounded a bit raspy, shrill, and overstretched. "You never mimicked me. Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world," Turner reportedly told Angela Bassett, star of the 1993 Turner biopic. Buntley — like every other star in a Tina production trying to capture the aura of the growling, clawing icon — has to do the same. And by “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and through the several numbers and built-in encores that followed, Buntley was, belatedly, ablaze.
The book, by Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar, and Kees Prins, is an odd creature, awkwardly and anachronistically overlaying Turner’s hits onto a sketchy version of her life journey. Among almost two dozen numbers by roughly twice that number of songwriters, “Better Be Good to Me,” “Private Dancer,” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero” feel particularly iffy thematically and stylistically. And some more details around the revival of Turner’s career in the 1980s would have been helpful too. Just how did her new, London-based production team ultimately win her over to their synth-rock plans for her? There are explanations, but the show omits them.
That’s too bad because while the Act I Ike-and-Tina story is necessary and foundational, its chaotic swirl of poverty, racism, sexism, abandonment, and abuse is also, by now, sadly familiar. The story arc wouldn’t work without it, but the Act II reinvention material is more novel, varied, and interesting, with quirk and flirtation, some cute and clever culture clashes, and genre mashups that led the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll to reign anew over a unique, cathartic sound that was at once primal and thrillingly futuristic. I’m far from alone, I bet, in remembering first hearing “What’s Love Got to Do With It” — in my case on a shuttle-bus radio in college — and feeling emotional and sonic hair stand on end in a wowza moment.
Friday’s performance could’ve used more, similarly powerful 1960s rock ‘n’ soul strut and swagger in Act I to counterbalance the Act II sonic punch it eventually finds under music director Daniel Mollett. But for whatever reason, that sense of confidence and control in the early brassier numbers was lacking. The quieter ballads fared better, especially “Don’t Turn Around,” with Burtley and Eva Ruwé as Gran Georgeanna, and “Let’s Stay Together,” which paired Burtley and Lamar Burns as Raymond, Tina's sax-player amour in Ike’s band. Act II’s “Open Arms” is another tender tune, with Eleni Kutay, as band manager Rhonda Graam, contributing sweet, understated vocals.
Under director Phyllida Lloyd, the production’s acting is decent, if sometimes a little cartoonish. For instance, Hans José Mueh as Australian music producer Roger Davies is amiably animated but gets swallowed by his own often-indecipherable accent.
While the evening’s musical cargo swayed some, the fundamentals of the production were freight-train flyin’. A fine ensemble did honor to Anthony Van Laast’s vigorous choreography, and Mark Thompson’s costume design delighted down to the last minidress fringe. But it’s the show’s lights fantastic that really bring it over the top. Projection designer Jeff Sugg has a fabulous visual range, from moody, impressionistic Tennessee country farmscape to psychedelic liquid-light gel motifs. In tandem, lighting designer Bruno Poet contrasts gentle mid-range atmospheric pastels with a stadium-show eye blast that must’ve shorted some Northern Virginia data centers Friday night.
In all, though the ride was bumpy, the crowd left the theater on an auditory and visual high, everyone’s inner Tina left tingling.
**
Runtime: three hours including, a 15-minute intermission
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