‘Tina Turner Musical’ lands in Bay Area for extended stay

Tina Turner was unforgettable. From her early days alongside then-husband Ike Turner in the ’60s and ’70s to solo superstardom in the ’80s and beyond, the “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” combined an explosive voice and magnetic presence to create a multitude of classic recordings, including “River Deep — Mountain High,” “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “The Best” and many, many more.

Now Bay Area audiences can revisit all these hits in “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical.” Fresh from Broadway, the North American tour is playing most of August at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre courtesy of BroadwaySF, followed immediately by a six-day run at San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Broadway San Jose season.

The jukebox musical traces the life and career of the titular star from her childhood as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, to the height of her success as a solo performer after escaping her abusive marriage to Ike, famously dramatized in the 1993 movie “What’s Love Got to Do with It.”

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, British director of the films “Mamma Mia!” and “The Iron Lady,” the musical has a book by Katori Hall, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “The Hot Wing King” and “The Mountaintop,” with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins,

“Tina” premiered in 2018 on London’s West End, where it’s still running, and opened on Broadway in 2019 for a nearly three-year run, minus a year-and-a-half COVID closure in the middle. This North American tour launched last September, just a month after the Broadway production closed.

Performers Naomi Rodgers and Zurin Villanueva share the role of Tina Turner on tour, evenly splitting the performances.

“A role like this, I don’t look it as a role,” Rodgers says. “I’m telling a true story. This is a real person we’re talking about, with a story that is so inspirational, but also tugs at the heart with what she’s been through. Playing Tina Turner is something iconic and otherworldly. You have to be inside of yourself and know yourself to be able to play a role such as this, because Tina knew herself. Tina knew the things that she wanted to do.”

“Because she is so iconic and because so many people are familiar with her and know her intimately, you want to take her off the pedestal and find what you relate to her with, that human experience that we are all are having,” Villanueva says. “That’s why all of the research is so paramount, because then I can see her as a woman, as a mother, as a partner, as a boss, all of these things. And so that I can portray her in a very honest and real way.”

Both actors say they find sharing such a forceful role helpful, so that they can give it their all in every other performance.

“I’m learning so much by watching Naomi perform,” Villanueva says. “It’s also really, really great to have that day off, to know that you can give a thousand percent because you’ve had the resting period. So it’s great twofold.”

“I’m a girl’s girl, so coming into doing this role and knowing that there was gonna be somebody I could count on to share this moment, this role, this story with me, I think it was a bit less nerve-racking, because of how intense this role is,” Rodgers says. “To have a counterpart or someone who understands exactly what you’re going through, it really helps us understand that we can really do this thing and tell this story in a true way.”

Turner’s death on May 24 at the age of 83 was naturally a somber occasion for the cast, but one that also renewed their sense of purpose.

“We were actually on break, so we were all in our respective homes,” says Villanueva. “I was in New York, at the spa of all places, and my phone was off. And when I turned it back on, I was like, what’s all these messages? It was a surprise and then just a deep sitting heavy sadness that I didn’t expect to feel. Even though I’ve never met her, her powers transcend.”

“I was getting my hair done at the time, and I refreshed my feed and my heart stopped a bit,” Rodgers says. “I went through that whole phase of not believing that it was real, because this is someone that I’ve always wanted to meet. I think that hit everybody a bit different, especially in the company, but what I can say is that it is given us all even more purpose to tell this story.”

“We just had this new sense of responsibility, because this is her legacy,” Villanueva agrees. “This is the only place you can get this story. It was the supreme passing of the baton, you know? The ancestor gives it to the ladies, and then we’re like, yes, ma’am, we got it for you. And we give it full gravitas and full weight and full everything that she wanted it to be, out here in the world for the next generation. It’s a supreme honor.”

Contact Sam Hurwitt at [email protected], and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.

‘TINA — THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL’

Book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins

In San Francisco: Presented by BroadwaySF; Aug. 1–27 at Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., $66.50-$179.50 (subject to change); 888-746-1799, www.broadwaysf.com

In San Jose: Presented by Broadway San Jose; Aug. 29–Sept. 3 at Center for the Performing Arts, 255 S. Almaden Blvd.; $43-$113; 800-982-2787, www.broadwaysanjose.com