'Tina: The Tina Turner Musical' seems like a no-brainer, but the singer wasn't always keen on the idea. And the transfer from London required tweaks.
When producer Tali Pelman arrived for dinner with Tina Turner and husband Erwin Bach in Switzerland in 2014, their house was beautiful. Turner looked gorgeous. But even before introductions were completed, Turner told Pelman: “I have no intention of doing this, but let’s have dinner before we talk about it.”
The show’s foundation was always clear to Pelman and Turner: a play where Turner would not be defined by the physical abuse inflicted by Ike, her husband and original musical partner.“She is about to turn 80 and that was a 16-year period,” Pelman says. “She had a second act in her life, making it back to the top as an African American woman in her 40s, and she has had an extraordinary big love with Erwin for more than 30 years.
But you can’t stage a foundation. The play had to evolve dramatically from the first draft by two Dutch writers, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Pelman, who had produced Katori Hall’s hit play about Martin Luther King Jr., “The Mountaintop“Katori is, like Tina, from Tennessee, so she could channel Tina’s voice,” Pelman says. “She’s also funny, irreverent and spiritual.”
Pelman brought in director Phyllida Lloyd, whose credits include acclaimed all-female Shakespeare productions as well as the movie “Mamma Mia!” The song list changed from London to Broadway. One early scene replaces Ike Turner singing “The HunterIt is often seen as the first rock record but also the experience that left him bitter. “We had been a bit blind,” Lloyd says. “Katori had Ike talking about [how] the song was appropriated by the white record company, and we suddenly said, ‘Why isn’t this in the show?’”
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