'TINA,' inspiring story of Tina Turner's rise to stardom, makes Wisconsin premiere at Fox Cities PAC

APPLETON – A biographical musical of one of rock 'n' roll's biggest legends captivated its audience during its Wisconsin premiere Tuesday night at Appleton's Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.

"TINA – The Tina Turner Musical" tells the story of the titular character's rise to fame, and the challenges and hardships she overcame along the way — all set to her songs. The show features hits like "Proud Mary," "River Deep – Mountain High," and "What's Love Got to Do with It." And the excitement in the audience was clear when attendees recognized favorite songs.

"'TINA' is a fantastic show. It's a very difficult show to perform due to the emotional nature of her story, and the physical nature of, with all the dancing and all that kind of thing. But it is a great musical," said Shari Washington Rhone, a swing performer who can portray numerous roles as needed, including in this show Turner's mother and grandmother.

Washington Rhone grew up in Milwaukee, and most of her family and friends are Wisconsinites, she told The Post-Crescent. For her, the musical's debut in the Badger State is also an opportunity to share the story with her loved ones.

"TINA – The Tina Turner Musical" first opened on Broadway in 2019. It shut down when the pandemic hit, and reopened in the fall of 2021 for about a year before closing. The North American tour has been on the road since July 2022. Tina Turner herself helped with the creative process of the musical.

"TINA" opens with Tina Turner in her iconic look — big, blonde-highlighted mullet and a mini dress and high heels — preparing to go on stage, seated on the ground with her back to the audience and repeating a Buddhist mantra. Then, her grandmother enters with a Cherokee chant, while her Baptist father passionately preaches. Then, the ensemble enters, swirling with chairs in hand, and suddenly it's a jump back in time, to a church congregation scene, with grown-up Tina Turner replaced with her child self — Anna Mae Bullock.

There's a surreal theme present throughout the musical, as the story weaves between realistic scenes from Turner's life and dream-like interpretations of emotion. The set design reflects this; even in scenes with concrete settings, like the recording studio or outside a Mississippi motel, blurred-out backdrops give a dream-like feel. At other points in the show, abstract backgrounds include moving colorful shapes, flashing police lights and a timeline list of cities on a tour. It emphasizes the show's scenes as a collection of memories that formed who Tina Turner came to be.

"TINA" does not shy away from showing the ugly parts of Turner's life. There are depictions of domestic abuse, first between Tina's father and mother, then the abuse Tina suffered from Ike Turner, her husband who springboarded Tina to fame as a teenager but was controlling, manipulative and physically abusive to her from early on. The show also depicts racism Tina faced throughout her career, from touring with Ike and their band in the south in the '60s and being refused lodging at a hotel, to being denied an opportunity for a record deal due to her race, age and gender in the '80s. There's a particularly disturbing moment where Ike tells Tina the story of his father's death.

But for all the heaviness, "TINA" is also a tale of beating the odds and proving people wrong, as Tina begins topping charts as a solo artist in her mid-40s.

Washington Rhone said audience members come to see "TINA" with a range of prior knowledge; some can remember listening to Ike and Tina Turner in the '60s and '70s, others are more familiar with the singer after her resurgence in the '80s, and some aren't familiar with Tina Turner at all beyond knowing some of her songs.

"Some of the people ... in their 50s and younger don't necessarily know about her story, don't necessarily know about the abuse that she suffered, they don't know that half of her life. So it's really illuminating to those who don't know that part of her struggle and her endurance," Washington Rhone said. "I also talked to some people who found it very healing, being able to see her go through all of those things, and still find a way to come out on top and claw her way to the person that we all know and love now. That we all knew and loved."

The cast at Tuesday night's show was exceptionally talented. In the lead role, Zurin Villanueva was a force to be reckoned with. She embodied Tina Turner at multiple stages in her life, from lanky, upbeat 17-year-old Anna Mae jumping on a St. Louis stage to sing with Ike Turner for first time, to the older, middle-aged Tina Turner with international fame and confidence in her independence.

Because the show is so demanding, two actresses play Tina Turner, and switch off every night, Washington Rhone said. It's no surprise; Villanueva's impressive vocal range left the audience loudly cheering and clapping after nearly every song.

At Tuesday's show, understudy Natalia Nappo played young Anna Mae, and she stole the show whenever she was on stage. The young actress had an extremely impressive belt, and buoyant energy that made her a believable younger version of Villanueva's grown-up Tina Turner.

Deon Releford-Lee was also phenomenal as Ike Turner. Releford-Lee's smooth, buttery voice blended gorgeously with Villanueva's on their duets. While a suave heartthrob when he is first introduced in the show, Ike's abusive behaviors quickly become apparent. Releford-Lee had a scary-calm voice just before breaking out in fits of rage or violence, and exhibited increasingly unhinged behavior correlating to Ike's cocaine use. Releford-Lee's presence on stage was enough to put the audience on edge — an impressive acting feat.

Another notable performance came from Roz White as Zelma Bullock, Tina's mother. "TINA" shows Zelma as a complex person in Turner's life; while she left Tina as a child to live with her father in Tennessee, and took Tina's older sister to live in St. Louis, she also offered Tina support in unconventional ways. White was a believably complicated mother with a harsh demeanor and unsureness of how to express love. Tearful sniffs could be heard in the audience in an Act Two scene where Zelma, from her deathbed, discusses her absence from Tina's life and regrets she carried.

The end of the musical returns to the scene it opened with, where Tina utters the mantra before going out on stage to a packed house of adoring fans. At the very end, the stage orientation flips and the audience at the Fox Cities PAC becomes an audience at a Tina Turner concert. It was a high-energy finale to a show filled with a wide range of emotions.

"TINA" ends at a point where Tina Turner's rise to superstardom was beginning. She would go on to win numerous nominations and awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and two inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 1991 and 2021, and further establish herself as a household name. Now, close to a year since the queen of rock 'n' roll's death, the musical feels like it carries extra significance as a celebration of Turner's music and impact on the world.

"TINA – The Tina Turner Musical" runs at the Fox Cities PAC through Sunday. Tickets can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, or by phone at 800-982-2787, or through the PAC ticket office in-person or by phone at 920-730-3760. The PAC ticket office is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: 'TINA,' telling Tina Turner's story, makes Appleton, Wisconsin premiere