Two performers take the lead in ‘Tina - The Tina Turner Musical’
Any doubts that Tina Turner was simply “The Best” tended to disappear anytime the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer took the stage.
After all, it was Turner’s explosive live performances that helped establish her as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
So, it’s unusual yet understandable that the national tour of “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” features two lead performers who take turns taking the stage in the title role.
to ever “It’s probably exist,” said one Ari of the Groover, hardest who roles played on Broadway Turner’s sister, Alline, and was a Tina understudy on Broadway before she started touring in the show’s starring role.
“It’s such a demanding role that it just helps … us to not only perform better, but also to have our own lives, to be able to enjoy it, to actually rest properly. We sing about 22, 23 songs in the show, and we are on the stage nonstop.”
When the jukebox musical rolls into Oklahoma City for performances Dec. 26-31 at Civic Center Music Hall, Groover and Parris Lewis will trade off portraying the musical icon, who died May 24 at age 83.
“I wasn’t in the Broadway company with Ari. … But being able to see the trajectory of the role from the outside looking in, it made it clear to me that it was necessary,” said Lewis, whose previous credits include national tours of “The Color Purple” and “Hairspray.”
”Being on the outside looking in, sometimes you can really learn a lot … and it allowed me to come in with grace, being one of the newer Tinas.”
What can people expect from the national touring production of ‘ Tina – The Tina Turner Musical?’
Featuring Turner’s top hits, including “Proud Mary,” “Private Dancer” and “The Best,” the musical biopic relates the inspiring journey of the Nutbush, Tennessee, native who broke through barriers and overcame domestic abuse to become a Grammy-winning icon and one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.
Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall (“The Mountaintop”), with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, and directed by acclaimed stage and screen helmer Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!”), the Broadway production received 12 Tony nominations, with Adrienne Warren winning Best Actress in a Musical for her turn as Tina.
Ahead of the national tour’s OKC bow, Groover and Lewis chatted with The Oklahoman via Zoom about the joys and challenges of playing the Queen of Rock:
Q: It’s unusual for a touring musical to have the lead role be split by design. Can you talk about playing that shared role?
Groover: I’ve never had a role this demanding before. … But it’s so wonderful to share a role with somebody, because not only do you get the rest, but you also get to celebrate sisterhood when you do this role in sharing it with somebody else. …
We get to celebrate each person’s different Tinas. … It’s such a beautiful thing, and I actually wish more shows, if they are going to be as rigorous as they are, would allow people to share the role.
Lewis: It’s foreign for two people to share a role in this industry. It’s usually just one person, and as people who this is our first leading lady opportunities — full-time leading ladies — you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m the lead.’ But it’s like, ‘No, we’re the lead.’ And there’s beauty in that.
Q: With the demands of playing this role and being on tour, is it like having a built-in support system?
Groover: Oh, my gosh, yes. … This industry can be very competitive. Particularly with Black women, I feel like it’s even more competitive, just because there’s not a lot of roles — especially roles like this, where we’re the driving force.
So, it’s just so nice to be like, ‘There’s no competition; there’s only celebration.’ You’re doing something that’s extremely hard, and it’s more of a ‘What do you need? How can I help?’ … It can get lonely, particularly doing Tina, because you are never leaving the stage. … So, just to know that you have somebody that understands exactly what you’re going through is such a wonderful experience, because you’re not alone.
Lewis: Yeah, I agree. It’s definitely collaborative in the way that we go about our workspace and day. But it also can be collaborative in the things that we learn from each other on stage and being like, ‘Hey, I did this thing, and it felt really crazy. Do you experience that?’ or seeing how somebody does something and be like, ‘I like that; I’m gonna start doing that.’ …
There’s strength in numbers in anything, so it’s been a really good space to share and navigate together.
Q: It’s easy to focus on the physical challenges of singing and dancing nonstop through so many songs, but what are the challenges of continually playing a character with such an emotional arc?
Lewis: The emotionality can con
sume you. … The heavy parts of the show, the parts that cause us to cry, the parts that are really pulling your heartstrings, depending on who you are, can cause you to fall into them. … I’m very good at being sad. Basically, my emotions, I feel them in extremities a lot of times, and so they’re amplified, whether I’m sad, angry, happy. My joy consumes a room; my anger can consume a room. So, I had to realize that my sadness can also consume a room. …
I was personally good as an actor and as a person at falling into these pockets of sadness and allowing the crowd to sit there in that space with me. But we needed to hop out of them in the ways that Tina did, in the ways that she chose to pivot and to be like, ‘This is not keeping me down any longer. I’m moving forward.’ … As simple as that is to say, that’s a hard thing to do.
Groover: I have to agree. There are so many dark moments, and you can get stuck in those, particularly the abuse. The abuse is hard.
I think the scene is actually hardest for me just because of trauma is … where the police come in, and Ike and Tina are just trying to find a place to stay for the night, because the hotel didn’t want to bring them (in) because they were Black. We’re in the Deep South, below the Mason-Dixon Line in Mississippi, and it’s one of those things where it’s just art imitating life, life imitating art.
That, for me, is very traumatic, to have to go back in real time about things when it comes to race. … A cousin of mine — like a second or third cousin — Ahmaud Arbery, he was murdered at the top of 2020, and I was just learning the show as Alline and a Tina understudy. So, to do that scene as Tina, it was very triggering at that moment — to come back and do it, it still gets triggering. … That is my trouble spot, and sometimes I have to learn how to let that go. It’s hard to let it go sometimes.
Q: Has your relationship with the show or the character changed since Tina Turner passed away?
Lewis: Most definitely. … There was like a reverent spirit that we had where we knew that she was with this company in spirit. But it gave us a purpose that was bigger than what we started with. Obviously, it was to tell her story. But now it was to honor her in the most authentic way that we could, and to honor her story by just reminding people of the icon that she was, having a lot more respect but a lot more grace in how we told the story, too.
I think the audiences came with a different energy. So, besides us coming with a different purpose, these audiences were coming to remember who Tina Turner was for them. … If we had her on a pedestal before, it just got even taller.
Groover: To see the fans respond to her passing, it was a beautiful thing. I knew, but I think I didn’t realize, how big of an icon she was globally until she passed away. It definitely hits harder.
I think there are more moments now when we’re on stage where we’re like, ‘OK, I feel you in a building, and I’ll let you figure out what you want to say through me if I need to be a vessel.’
It’s sad, but she lived such a wonderful life, probably beyond even her wildest dreams.
‘ TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL’
❚ When: Dec. 26-31.
❚ Where: Civic Center, 201 N Walker.
❚ Tickets: https://www.okcbroadway.com/tina.