Warren’s simply the best as Tina Turner

TINA Turner’s grandma described the singer’s voice as a combination of ‘fire and heaven’.

Adrienne Warren, who portrays Turner in the musical Tina, which began previewing at the Aldwych Theatre on Wednesday, totally captures that heat, and paradise, too.

She and Kobna HoldbrookSmith, who portrays Ike Turner, with whom Tina had an incendiary 16-year relationship, are incandescent.

Director Phyllida Lloyd, working on her first musical since Mamma Mia!, met Turner several times while researching the show, along with Olivier award-winning writer Katori Hall and producer Tali Pelman.

Turner and her husband, Erwin Bach, are executive producers.

It’s not a whitewash. Lloyd and Hall take the show to the darkest parts of Turner’s life and show how mean-spirited Ike was when he threw drum cymbals at her, kicked and punched her. But HoldbrookSmith makes you understand (but not condone) why the insecure Ike lashes out. He was never given credit for his role in rock’n’roll history, and took it out on his wife.

Warren, an up-andcoming Broadway name, digs deep for her portrait of Tina.

It’s not an impersonation — though when she donned the blonde wig and black leather dress that Turner wore for her What’s Love Got To Do With It music video, I got chills, especially when Anthony van Laast’s Tina Turnerinspired choreography kicked in.

It’s a brilliant scene in a show that’s full of sublime, heartstopping musical theatre moments.

Tina’s in healthy shape now, but will get even better during previews, once Lloyd’s superb cast and creative team finesse the scene transitions.

Some of the audience on Wednesday night thought they were at a Tina Turner concert, and their clapping drowned out some of the numbers. Which gives me the perfect excuse to go and see the show again.

And my second time won’t be my last — it’s simply the best.