This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw Tina at the invite of Birmingham Hippodrome.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Claude East talks about her role in this touring production and what it means to perform in her home town of Birmingham. Listen below:
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
This production contains strong language including racial slurs, and onstage inferred domestic violence.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome: Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”A huge, hard-hitting musical”
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins
Exploring the life of Tina Turner, this production features many tracks made famous by the artist herself and explores both her highly troubled relationship with Ike Turner and then her life after. Born as Anna Mae Bullock (played at this performance by Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy), we discover, through music that Tina’s upbringing was filled with violent episodes around her.
The first slap happens within the first five minutes of the show and the gasp in the audience is audible. This isn’t an easy show to sit and watch, it is challenging and empowering. A couple behind me appeared pretty shocked before the show, when the “Please, No Singing” signs flashed around. Clearly, they had turned up for a sing-a-long which is reserved for the encore.
Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy is excellent in this role, belting out the tracks, being vulnerable, then strong. The Birmingham audience cheered when her character starts fighting back. David King-Yombo portrays Ike with style and a strong sense of control.
I didn’t know any much about Tina Turner’s life before seeing this musical, but I did know a lot of the music. It is so great to hear these arrangements of Proud Mary, What’s Love Got To Do With It, I Can’t Stand the Rain and (Simply) The Best plus many others.
The set features a lot of back wall projection of landscapes, extending the stage space virtually in some cases. The costumes a bold and feel very much like they had the Tina Turner stamp of approval.
This is a huge, hard-hitting musical, and some people in the audience might find it too uncomfortable during the near three-hour run time (including interval). Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is at Birmingham Hippodrome until 28th June 2025. Book tickets here: birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/tina.
