Awkward Tina Turner musical makes you uncomfortable but still charms and thrills, like the star herself
Hovering uneasily between fun and ferocity, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre is crammed with rousing hits but has the compressed drama of a cage fight
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre is ambitious storytelling with a real edge; it hovers uncomfortably between a stark meditation on domestic violence in a black American context, and a redemptive feel-good story of the triumph of talent.
The show opens with megastar Tina in her prime, about to go on stage at a monster concert. It then flashes back to her as a little girl in Nutbush, Tennessee, singing in church. Her mother, beaten by her father, flees the family home with Tina's sister, leaving Tina behind – a deep wound that haunts her life. Tina's own marriage to Ike Turner replicates this domestic violence scenario, in an intergenerational recycling of trauma. The script does not excuse Ike's violence, but does try to contextualise it among the major humiliations heaped on black male Americans in a deeply racist 1960s society.
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The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Our village was made famous by huge TV show – now busloads of brash tourists block our driveways… nowhere's off-limits
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Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
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Author interview: Fighting past the pain barrier to deliver a riveting mystery
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Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
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