The Northern View > Life & Arts
By Shaun Thomas
Published: October 4th, 2006
The life and music of Tina Turner took centre stage in Prince Rupert on Sept.30 as Luisa Marshall’s “TINA” — A Rock ‘n Roll Journey played to a large crowd at the Lester Center of Arts.
The show told the story of Tina’s rise to the top of the music industry, and left no portion of the singer’s life untold. With the help of images showing on the huge screen in the background, the show began with Tina’s life in Nutbush, Tennessee, accompanied with Marshall’s rendition of “Nutbush City Limits”, and covered her time with Ike Turner, how her newfound Buddhist faith helped her relationship and do it alone, the meeting with Roger Davies in 1979 that helped her to rediscover her rock and roll roots, her first number one song with “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, and her starring role in “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” before concluding with Tina as the reigning Queen of Rock and Roll with the release of her Twenty Four Seven album in 2000. The writing and pacing of the story truly captured the life of this unique performer.
Just as spectacular as the story was the performance put on by Marshall and her dancers. Marshall truly owned the stage and, more importantly, the role of Tina Turner the performer. Her powerful vocals and stage antics mimicked those of Turner herself, and the variery of costumes and looks she brought to the show helped bring across the different eras and the evolution of the singer. The dancers, including Prince Rupert’s own Marco Arimare who turned in a great performance in front of his hometown crowd, did nothing but add to both story and the performance. Donning costumes that varied from churchgoers in the opening number to glitzy disco clothes to reflect some of the style of the late 70’s, the dancers added more to the concept of a progression through time, and the interaction between male and female dancers helped capture the essence of certain songs during the performance.
“TINA” — A Rock ‘n Roll Journey delivers what it promises audiences in spades, and by the end of the show everyone was singing along in agreement that Tina is “Simply The Best”
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