Theater review: ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ at The Bushnell expresses tragedy and triumphs of the rock legend

When you are brought to your seat to see “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” at The Bushnell the usher will alert you personally that two encore songs happen after the curtain call so that you don’t rush out to the parking lot prematurely and miss them.

This sort of civility — getting a heads-up so you’re not clapping yourself silly waiting to see if the headliner will return to the stage — is one big reason musicals about pop stars can work so well. They’re civilized.

Of course, tidying up famously rowdy lives with a concise story, cleanly drawn characters and a greatest hits playlist removes much of what makes live music shows so raw, vital and captivating.

“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” has a tougher job than many biomusicals. It has a harrowing tale of a performer who was known for her boundless energy.

Now 83, Turner retired from live performance in 2009. The musical covers her life from childhood in impoverished Nutbush, Tennessee, to her extraordinary comeback in the 1980s.

The title role is so exhausting that the tour travels with two Tinas, who split each week between them, as well as two understudies.

On Tuesday at The Bushnell, it was Zurin Villanueva. She doesn’t exactly fit the familiar silhouette of the real Turner but that’s hardly the point. Energy is the point, and you’re drawn to her energy the way you would be with an opera singer or a sports singer. (She’s going to do that now, moments after she just did this?) It’s a feat of endurance as much as a dramatic performance. You notice how much Tina is onstage because when she has to run off for an elaborate costume change, of which there are many since there are so many different famous Tina Turner styles.

Give the creative power behind the scenes — a script by Pulitzer-winning playwright Katori Hall (whose “Hot Wing King” will be at Hartford Stage next season) and direction by Phyllida Lloyd (whose range extends from Shakespeare to the original “Mamma Mia”) — “Tina: The Tina Musical” is in some respects a rather pedestrian, predictable biographical musical. The change in decades is shorthanded with bad wigs and fashions plus psychedelic backdrop projections.

It follows its star’s life from childhood through stardom and setbacks to a stirring comeback. Hall builds in recurring spiritual images, but the key dramatic moments come from Turner’s life story, especially her difficult — make that horrific — relationships with her mother, father and husband.

As has been well documented in books, including her own memoirs and the 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” Turner suffered years of physical and mental abuse. The musical does not shy away from this, and it would be artistically abominable if they did try to downplay it.

There are scenes where Tina is hit by her father, hit by her mother and hit repeatedly and ruthlessly by Ike Turner, her bandleader-turned-husband. The violence is the carefully choreographed sort that seems purposefully unconvincing so as not to scare anyone too much but at the same time clearly gets its point across. Tina also watches Ike cheat on her with other women, sighs as he cheats her by never paying her for her work onstage and takes care of the children while he’s right there beside her doing a lot of drugs.

Ike is such a repellent character (he’s literally labeled a devil at one point) that the actor Garrett Turner gets a lot of credit for not letting the role get out of hand.

Even a stab at a redemption scene late in the play shows how vile Ike was. Where Garrett Turner really shines is in the early scene where his magnetism as an early rock and roller playing “Rocket 88” helps explain why Tina might get caught up in his spell.

Despite Tina’s ubiquity, there are many great vocal performances in the musical. There’s a suitor and bandmate named Raymond (Gerard M. Williams) who gets to sing Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” as a love song to Tina. Tina’s sister Alline (Parris Lewis) gets to be a teen girl entranced by the new rock and R&B sounds, taking part in rousing renditions of “Shake a Tailfeather” and “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.”

This is not one of the musicals where there are brief bursts of dialogue set up stand-alone recreations of concerts. In “Tina,” the songs underscore the drama. When Tina faces a crisis of conscience she sings “I Can’t Stand the Rain” in a haunting, pensive style. “Better Be Good to Me,” “I Don’t Wanna Fight No More” and “Be Tender With Me” are all used to illustrate phases of Ike and Tina’s marriage. Often this works, though it’s hard to disassociate “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from the “Mad Max” movie it was the theme of. Even “What’s Love Got to Do With It” has to do double duty as Tina’s comeback hit and the expression of her hesitation to fall in love again.

From the family-in-turmoil scenes that start it off to its affirming, positivistic, hope-filled ending, this is very much a piece of well-calculated American musical theater. Then, as a bonus, you get those two encore concert-style numbers the theater ushers, with Tina cutting loose without having to pause for dialogue, and the whole cast shimmying to “Proud Mary.”

There’s a lot of celebration and good humor amid this otherwise dour retelling of Tina Turner’s life. Though it can’t be called outrageous or raw, it ends up being balanced, entertaining, enlightening and a great showcase for a slew of talented singers who also act. It wants to take you higher.

“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” runs through Sunday at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Finals performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6 p.m. $42-$163. bushnell.org.