Tag: rock ‘n’ roll

Celebrating the birth and rebirth of Tina Turner

Zurin Villanueva holds forth as Tina Turner in the North American Tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. (Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

By Richard Ades

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical opens as the queen of rock psyches herself up for a concert that she hopes will relaunch her career.

The show eventually takes us to that concert, but not before it recaps Turner’s years’ worth of struggles with parents who abandoned her and a husband who abused her. It’s a long and painful journey that’s sometimes touching and other times, well, not. You may even be tempted to leave early, as a few audience members did toward the end of Tuesday’s opening night at the Ohio Theatre.

But don’t. I repeat, DO NOT LEAVE. Because when the show finally takes us to that concert, it may well be the best time you’ve had in ages.

With a book by Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, Tina is a jukebox musical that revisits Turner’s classic hits while covering the highlights and (mostly) the lowlights of her life. After premiering in London in 2018, it opened the following year on Broadway, where it garnered a bevy of Tony nominations but won only for lead performer Adrienne Warren.

That suggests that the musical rises and falls on the strength of the performer who plays Tina, and how could it be otherwise? In the case of the touring production now visiting Columbus, it definitely rises, though not immediately. On Tuesday, Zurin Villanueva at first held forth with a voice that seemed too thin to do the role justice, but she gradually began adding elements of Tina’s iconic tones. By the time she launched into “River Deep—Mountain High,” she was Tina Turner.

Was Villanueva holding back in the beginning to dramatize the title character’s evolution into the powerhouse performer she would become? Likely. At any rate, she just kept getting better and better in a role that left her onstage and belting out tunes through most of the show. (Ari Groover takes over the demanding role in alternate performances.)

Anyone familiar with Tina Turner knows that she got her start (and her stage name) thanks to rock performer Ike Turner, who made her his lead singer and later married her, even though she was already pregnant with another musician’s child. It’s also well known that Ike was a physically abusive control freak. In the touring show, Deon Releford-Lee plays Ike as an all-out cad, though the script does give him a touch of humanity by revealing some of the Mississippi native’s disturbing brushes with Jim Crow racism.

When Tina at long last rebels against Ike’s brutality, it’s one of the show’s most moving moments, especially since it’s followed by the gorgeous “I Don’t Wanna Fight No More.” Tina’s struggles, however, have just begun, as she then spends years trying to reinvent herself as a solo performer.

Complicating her quest, the script suggests, is her understandable fear of submitting to another man’s control following her separation from Ike. This makes her cautious when an Australian music producer named Roger Davies (Dylan S. Wallach) appears out of nowhere and offers to help restart her career.  

Besides the talented folks already mentioned, top cast members include Carla R. Stewart as Tina’s supportive grandmother; Roz White as her mother; Gigi Lewis as her sister; Gerard M. Williams as Raymond, her first love; and Sarah Bockel as her manager, Rhonda. Worthy of special mention are Brianna Cameron and Symphony King, who alternate in the role of Anna-Mae, the girl who grows up to be Tina Turner.

Though the show sometimes drags things out a bit, especially during Act II, director Phyllida Lloyd mostly moves it along at a comfortable pace that escalates into pure exuberance during the spirited musical numbers. A dynamite band under Dani Lee Hutch’s direction accompanies the numbers, while choreographer Anthony Van Laast brings them to life by recreating Tina’s energetic dance moves.

Equally important are the behind-the-scenes technicians who back up the show’s dramatic and musical components with consistently compelling stage pictures, including lighting designer Bruno Poet and set/costume designer Mark Thompson. “Compelling,” by the way, turns into “gloriously over-the-top” once that final concert begins.

One final note: Don’t leave before the curtain call, and don’t leave after the curtain call, either, because that’s only the beginning of an extended “encore” that is the highlight of the entire evening.

Broadway in Columbus and CAPA will present Tina: The Tina Turner Musical through May 12 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Running time: 3 hours (including intermission and encore). For ticket information, visit columbus.broadway.com. For information about upcoming tour stops, visit tinaonbroadway.com/tickets/.

Shadowbox finds horrific humor in zombies, political correctness

Stephanie Shull (left) and Julie Klein perform Divas Do Hard Rock in Shadowbox Live’s The Rocking Dead. (Photos by Buzz Crisafulli)

By Richard Ades

Halloween is the season devoted to the scary side of life. So it’s appropriate that Shadowbox Live’s Halloween-season show, The Rocking Dead, has a skit devoted to one of the scarier developments of modern life.

Killer Correctness shows what happens when two cops (Jimmy Mak and Guillermo Jemmott) try to solve a string of murders whose only witness (Katy Psenicka) lives her life according to politically correct principles. The upshot is that she would rather let a killer go free than answer the most basic questions about race, gender, height and so forth, explaining that she doesn’t want to make assumptions based on mere physical appearance.

At its best, political correctness means simply treating everyone with respect. At its worst, it’s the fear that someone, somewhere, somehow will be offended if you don’t constantly monitor and censure everything you and the rest of society say or do. Killer Correctness hilariously faces this debilitating illness head on.

Not quite as funny but even more politically minded is President Frank, featuring an Igor-like press secretary (John Boyd) who struggles to explain a monstrous commander-in-chief (Billy DePetro) who’s determined to build a “border moat” and seems to enjoy throwing women in the lake. Shadowbox seldom delves into national politics, but let’s face it: The current occupant of the White House is an irresistible target.

The rest of the skits seldom reach this level of level of originality, and some are rehashes of bits from earlier shows. Taken altogether, though, they add up to an enjoyable evening. They include:

▪ World War Spazoids: Kirby (Jimmy Mak) warns his familiar group of nerdy friends that some of their classmates are turning into zombies.

▪ Divas Do Hard Rock: Reprising a well-worn but clever bit, a pair of divas (Julie Klein and Stephanie Shull) put an operatic spin on hits by Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC and the like.

▪ Hellchild: A harried teacher (Klein) struggles to convince a doting mom (Psenicka) that her son (DePetro) is possessed.

▪ Important Stuff News: A pair of juvenile journalists (Mak and Michelle Daniels) anchor a newscast that looks at Halloween from a kid’s viewpoint.

▪ Who’s Your Daddy?: A Maury Povich-like TV host (Boyd) talks to a woman (Psenicka) who believes her daughter was fathered by a werewolf (Brandon Anderson).

▪ Hang in There: In perhaps the weakest skit, an incipient zombie attack sets off a generational conflict between an office worker (Mak) and a millennial intern (Boyd).

Billy DePetro sings Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.

If the comedic bits include both hills and valleys, the musical portions of the show exist on a consistently high plateau. Setting the proper tone from the outset, Ashley Pearce sings Single File’s Zombies Ate My Neighbors while a group of vigilantes erect a barricade to fight off an expected attack. A little later, DePetro does a lively David Byrne tribute with Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer.

If I had to pick my favorite vocalization of the night, it would have to be band member Brent Lambert’s gruff-voiced interpretation of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, augmented with a tasty riff from fellow guitarist Aaron Joseph. But it would be a close call, given the classy vocal work from Brandon Anderson (Bullet With Butterfly Wings), Noelle Anderson (Born Under a Bad Sign), Klein (Ghost in My Machine) and others.

Additional cover songs that deserve mention: Concrete Blonde’s Bloodletting, sung by Eryn Reynolds in a way that manages to be both creepy and sexy; and Muse’s Psycho, sung by Jemmott. The latter number seems to go on forever, but it’s so much fun that even non-headbangers won’t mind at all.

The Rocking Dead continues through Nov. 11 at Shadowbox Live, 503 S. Front St., Columbus. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Saturdays. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes (including intermission). Tickets are $20-$40. A one-hour “Nightcap” version will be presented at 10:30 p.m. select Fridays; tickets are $20-$25. 614-416-7625 or www.shadowboxlive.org.