Critical Review at Hennepin Arts

Heather Sheedy Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Tina Amazes Today’s Audiences Just as Tina Had Amazed Yesterday’s  A child of two ‘80s teens, I had grown up hearing stories of their rock-fueled days of rebellion. And so, I walked into Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on March 10th wearing my dad’s leather jacket he wore to smoke his first cigarette. Ironically, the only drug I’d be near that night was the addictive substance known as Tina Turner’s voice and Parris Lewis’s stunning emulation of the icon.   Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is a star-studded, show-stopping musical that expertly plays on the nostalgia of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s while showing that Tina’s life wasn’t as star-studded or show-stopping as her performances. Through dynamic digital screen imagery, on-stage costume changes and ensemble presence, and jukebox musical storytelling, Tina captures the inspiring story of Tina Turner as she breaks the expectations music and society have set for her.  One of my f...

  Tyler Quade Tina, The Tina Turner Story, 2023 “Tina” Turns Back Time Delving into the triumphs and tribulations of singer Tina Turner’s life, Tina does far more than just retell her Wikipedia page. Seen at the 7:30 performance at the Minneapolis Orpheum theater on March 1st, Tina was played by Parris Lewis who delivered nothing less than a stunning performance. Each performance was larger-than-life and never a challenge to comprehend from the far reaches of the balcony section. From the first scene, I could tell this performance would quickly become one of my favorite shows from the season. The show opens with a religious intensity. Tina comes on stage and kneels before praying in a foreign tongue. An older woman who we can assume to be her grandmother joins in on the chanting before Tina’s (then Anna-Mae) father begins to preach. The scene smoothly transitions to a church choir, with Tina being replaced by her younger self (Ayvah Johnson). Only nine years old, young Ayvah J...

  Tina: Love’s Got Everything to Do With It Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is a heart-pounding, thoroughly inspiring recount of the life of the prolific rock n’ roll trailblazer, Tina Turner, as she breaks through the barriers of racism, sexism, and ageism to completely reshape the music genre. The touring Broadway production at the Minnesota Orpheum brought Tina’s powerful voice and unapologetic story brilliantly to the stage, bringing the whole audience to their feet with her inspiring music and reclamation of her identity. Packing an entire lifetime—one of such a pioneering music star, at that—into two and a half short hours is no easy feat. However, the costume and tech designers took the challenge head-on, with seamless set changes and true-to-the-era costumes as Tina’s career progressed. These elements drew the audience into moments in Tina's life, from her humble upbringing to the light-infused stage in her showstopping live performances, giving Tina the dazzling presenta...

  Tina : (Simply) The Best “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” Tina’s chanting echoes through the theater time and time again as the resilient star finds strength from within to keep going. The actual Tina Turner describes her Buddhist mantra as the loftiest place. “It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place inside you” (Hamilton). These words could just as easily sum up the mature, masterful production, Tina , which opened at the Orpheum last Wednesday. Tina tells the life story of Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock), the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, who battled sexism, racism, and ageism to eventually become the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Lightning-fast scene changes are aided by a large screen at the back of the stage that shows different images, allowing Tina to flow like a one-shot film.  The show is a hybrid of musical, live concert, and everything in between, incorporating some of Turner's most famous songs into the plot and including scenes where Tina (Pa...