Theater Review: ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ about Much More than the Songs

Broadway’s jukebox musicals generally lure us with the promise of lots of beloved radio hits. If the story is interesting, it’s a bonus. Jersey Boys and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical turned out to have surprising and fascinating stories to offer on top of a gold mine of great songs. With Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, the formula is reversed: We all know her personal story, and it’s tremendously inspiring. Yet her song catalogue is thin, and she wrote very little of it. She had only a few early soul hits, with her impresario-abuser-husband Ike Turner, then enjoyed her biggest successes in the 1980s with bland factory-processed corporate soft rock manufactured to provide tranquil background sounds for the thoughts of soccer moms on their way to Penney’s.

Turner’s dolorous struggle to achieve independence is the heart of this musical, and knowing that it’ll all turn out fine makes her suffering more bearable — in case you didn’t know about her comeback, the show begins in the Eighties, with Turner about to perform solo for a huge audience. If Aretha was the queen of soul, Tina is at least its duchess. Mapping out her rise, fall, and rise makes for an engaging, frequently emotionally powerful, evening. Her resilience, combined with the extravagantly entertaining performance of the actress playing her, Adrienne Warren, more than makes up for the mediocrity of some of the songs.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

Broadway’s jukebox musicals generally lure us with the promise of lots of beloved radio hits. If the story is interesting, it’s a bonus. Jersey Boys and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical turned out to have surprising and fascinating stories to offer on top of a gold mine of great songs. With Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, the formula is reversed: We all know her personal story, and it’s tremendously inspiring. Yet her song catalogue is thin, and she wrote very little of it. She had only a few early soul hits, with her impresario-abuser-husband Ike Turner, then enjoyed her biggest successes in the 1980s with bland factory-processed corporate soft rock manufactured to provide tranquil background sounds for the thoughts of soccer moms on their way to Penney’s.

Turner’s dolorous struggle to achieve independence is the heart of this musical, and knowing that it’ll all turn out fine makes her suffering more bearable — in case you didn’t know about her comeback, the show begins in the Eighties, with Turner about to perform solo for a huge audience. If Aretha was the queen of soul, Tina is at least its duchess. Mapping out her rise, fall, and rise makes for an engaging, frequently emotionally powerful, evening. Her resilience, combined with the extravagantly entertaining performance of the actress playing her, Adrienne Warren, more than makes up for the mediocrity of some of the songs.