By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — If you go by the Civic Theater around 9:30 pm on the next four nights, you may notice people coming out with big smiles on their faces, a beat in their step and a song on their lips. Such is the end of the emotional journey audience members were taken on at the Broadway San Diego performance of TINA. The rockumentary tells of the life and rise to fame of the legendary Tina Turner, who sadly passed just last May.
The first half of the show covers her life with Ike Turner (Roderick Lawrence) who started as her boss and became her husband. We see Tina (Naomi Rodgers) leave the home of her grandmother (Ann Nesby) in Tennessee and go to Minnesota to join her mother and sister Alline (Roz White, and Parris Lewis respectively). We learn about Ike’s abuse, partying, and womanizing. We witness some of the challenges they experienced as Black artists in the 60s dealing with “separate but equal” policies. And we see Anna-Mae (Tina’s real name) become the Tina that would go on to break records.
As much as I enjoyed the show, and I did, there were a couple of disconnects for me. I didn’t feel like the actor playing Ike was Ike. I had a hard time believing him in the role. Granted it was opening night in a new theater so there could have been something going on, but I found myself having more difficulty with his scenes than the others, and it wasn’t just because of the character’s cruelty. Maybe the actor himself was having a hard time being so cruel, I don’t know, but something wasn’t working.
The other disconnect I had was in actor Geoffrey Kidwell’s portrayal of Phil Spector. To his credit, Kidwell played three different roles, so I can see that perhaps he was doing a caricature of what he thought a producer might be. It felt like in trying to do so he was channeling a different Jew, Gilbert Godfrey who is famous for his annoying voice and mannerisms. The thing is when the play has made-up characters, the actors can give them the personality that they want, but when it’s a depiction of a real character, it needs to be spot on. Obviously, I’m sensitive to how Jewish characters are portrayed, so wondering if I was just imagining things, I went online to search for old video of Phil Spector talking and while he was a nasty person, it wasn’t close to the characterization on stage.
But, speaking of playing a real-life person and doing them justice, Naomi Rodgers as Tina had some really big shoes to fill and boy did she! What a voice! The audience was so engaged with her and her incredibly expressive face that when Ike was beating her the first time some members of the audience started shouting for her to fight back. When she finally did defend herself at the end of the first act, the crowd was with her all the way.
Other stand-out performances were Parris Lewis as her sister Alline and show-stealer Ayvah Johnson who at only 10 years old blew everyone away with her performance as the young Anna-Mae. If this girl sticks with acting, I predict huge things from her. She lit up the stage every time she came out, and the roar she got at curtain call showed I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
In the second half of the show, we see Tina meet Roger Davies (Zachary Freier-Harrison) who becomes her manager and pressures her into doing the song that became her first #1 hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Now this song came out in 1984, and when Roger first sings it to her, you heard a hum of excitement go throughout the audience. I’m guessing that my friend Shani and I weren’t the only Gen Xers in the crowd. Tina repeatedly rejected the song though, and so the audience had to wait for their moment.
When she finally sings it, the audience was so excited that some couldn’t help by sing along. So, at the end of the show, when she breaks the fourth wall and addresses San Diego directly, concert style, the crowd was ready for it. Sing along they did, gleefully and joyfully. Then Rodgers as Tina led us through two more songs, including her well-known “Proud Mary” concert style as an encore and the crowd stayed on their feet dancing and singing throughout.
I have to say though, as much as I loved the sing-along, and that delicious moment of breaking the fourth wall, it was a quiet scene when Tina introduced herself to her eventual future husband Erwin Bach (Max Falls) as Anna-Mae. There was something really sweet and special about that scene.
Tina is only in town a short run, ending on July 30, so try to get in while you can.
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Sandi Masori is a food and theatre reviewer for San Diego Jewish World. When she’s not covering food or theatre, she helps authors self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and searches for the best sushi in town.