So young but she’s Simply The Best
Nkeki Obi-Melekwe sashays on to the Aldwych Theatre stage and launches into an electrifying version of Nutbush City limits.
Flanked by six dancers, she’s like a whirlwind: grabbing the mic as Simone Mistry-Palmer, the associate choreographer of Tina the Musical, issues instructions.
‘Dig-kick-1-2-3!’ Mistry-Palmer said as she showed Nkeki how to twist and turn in high heels.
The wig’s a bit wobbly. but Tali Pelman — producer of the smashhit show about Tina Turner’s rough-and-tumble time with first husband ike (who beat her), and her incredible comeback aged 40 — said Obi-Melekwe will have a new one by Monday, when she officially takes over as the star of Tina.
She replaces the fabulous Adrienne warren, who will get a well-deserved break before preparing to open in Tina at the luntFontanne on broadway on November 7. warren’s leaving her role in good hands. Nkeki is a powerhouse. i sat in the stalls, enthralled, as i watched her being put through her paces by Mistry-Palmer and Ola ince, the associate director.
it’s hard to believe she’s just 22. even she wondered if she was too young to audition for the part in front of director Phyllida lloyd.
born in the bronx, the actress moved with her family to North Carolina when she was nine. She would hear her father playing music on weekends up in the attic. ‘You’d hear it three storeys below,’ she laughed, as we drank tea during a break. ‘Of course, there was Tina Turner,’ she added, of her dad’s eclectic music collection
when she grew up, ‘i’d listen to her on the train, everywhere’. in fact, she was in the gym, doing crunches to Private Dancer, when she received a call from her manager telling her the Tina creative team wanted to see her again.
it wasn’t just the song and dance she studied at the University of Michigan that helped her win the part. it was her acting. She’d studied classical theatre, and lloyd realised Nkeki was at home with Shakespeare and other classics.
Tina Turner was impressed, too. when they met at the superstar’s home in Switzerland, ‘Tina spent time with Nkeki and she said: “She’s the one!” ’ Pelman told me.
A first-generation NigerianAmerican, Nkeki has already checked out the Nigerian restaurants in Peckham, South-east london. My hunch is that she’s going to be very much at home on the Aldwych stage, too.