Coming to the Stage – “Tina: The Musical”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, music legend, Tina Turner, will be the subject of a new theatrical biographical musical being developed in London by Netherlands-based Stage Entertainment. The show’s working title is Tina: The Musical.

Tina Turner has given the thumbs up to a planned West End musical about her life, scheduled to debut in London’s theatre district in 2018. Turner joined the creative and producing teams in London  for a workshop presentation of the piece, for which no timeline has been announced. Adrienne Warren, a Tony nominee this year for Shuffle Along, is playing Turner in the workshop.

“We have been working on the musical for over a year now, and today I am delighted to be able to share our news as we begin the next chapter of our journey,” said Turner in a statement.

Adrienna Warren

Tali Pelman, group creative director of Stage Entertainment, added: “Tina is a music legend and her iconic songs are matched only by the power and inspiration of her remarkable and moving story.”

Turner’s life was portrayed on the screen in the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett, which traced her difficult emergence from an abusive marriage to Ike Turner, clearing the path for her rise to superstardom as a solo artist in the 1980s. Her combined album and single sales are estimated at 180 million copies worldwide.

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee — and eight-time Grammy Award winner — has charted a combined 37 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, both as a solo artist and has one-half of the duo Ike & Tina Turner. Among those hits were Turner’s solo smashes “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 in 1984, along with the top 10 hits “Better Be Good to Me,” “I Don’t Wanna Fight” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” Her iconic hit with Ike, “Proud Mary,” reached No. 4 in 1971.

Turner’s last studio album, Twenty Four Seven, was released in 2000, and hit No. 21 on the Billboard 200. She has since followed it up with assorted greatest hits releases, compilations and live albums, including her highest charting album ever, the No. 2-peaking All the Best in 2005.

An unrelated stage musical based on Turner’s life and career, called Soul Sister, was produced in London’s West End in 2012. Further details about the new show will be announced as the project develops and word from the curb says Broadway is the ultimate destination for the musical which will no doubt be sold out longer than Hamilton!!

Oh, you tryin’ to help Ike