Triumphant ‘Tina Turner Musical’ at Bass Hall much more than a concert performance

For those planning to attend a showing of “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” and expecting a concert performance with great music, you are in a for a surprise.

“Tina” is much more than great music. Oh, it does indeed feature the fantastic music of the show’s namesake, and there are several scenes performed in a style that make you believe you have one of the best seats in the house at a concert by the late legend.

But there is so much more to the latest presentation in Performing Arts Fort Worth’s Broadway at the Bass series, which runs through Feb. 11, at Bass Performance Hall. There is a story of how one of the most magnificent musical talents in history — female or male came to be and the struggle to find her own life when she was off the stage.

If you think Tina had a strong voice, it’s nothing compared to the strength she showed in starting her life over at a time when many folks have comfortably settled into life closer to retirement than when they started. But when you learn of her story, you realize, just as she did, that she had no choice.

And had she not made the brave, albeit later than some around her encouraged, decision to leave a life of daily beatings and domination, she might very well not have lived to become the musical icon we knew. She was great as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Review, but it was when she re-emerged as a solo act in the 1980s after leaving him that she reached heights like never before — heights that Ike refused to even let her consider.

But then, Ike rarely let her do much more than perform — onstage and as his servant of a wife. Any show of independence and she was likely to receive the back of his hand or a completely closed fist.

This is what makes “Tina” a show that is much more than entertaining. It makes us see Tina as more than a superstar — though she was certainly that. We see inside a woman who wanted something her mother never had until she left Tina’s father, a life free to call her own, to make her own choices.

On this night Parris Lewis starred as Tina (she alternates with Zurin Villanueva). Her performance struck a perfect balance of electricity and melancholy, emitting every ounce of energy the Queen of Rock displayed onstage and the internal tug of war with the emotional challenges of her private life.

The show begins with Tina as a young girl in church, still going by her birth name of Anna Mae Bullock. Even then life had its heartbreaking challenges as her mother leaves after a fight with her father, leaving Tina behind with the words, “You the one made me have her, you take care of her.”

Young Anna Mae, played by Brianna Cameron on this night (alternating nights with Symphony King), has quite the set of pipes herself. In a post-show encore she went note-for-note with Lewis in a duet that rocked the stage.

Though Anna Mae, who was then passed off to her grandmother, does go on to reunite with her mother and sister, she never forgot that hurtful moment of being left behind. It’s revisited more than once throughout the show.

Anna Mae and her sister attend a juke joint one night and it is there she meets Ike (played this night by understudy Antonio Beverly in place of Deon Releford-Lee), a rising star in his own right. He invites her to sing with him, realizing he has the secret to moving beyond juke joint gigs.

The show highlights the question of whether Ike and Tina ever really loved each other in the first place. She actually seemed to be headed to something serious with another member of the band before Ike found out and sent him packing — after beating up both him and Tina.

The marriage was presented by Ike as a business proposition. In reality, it was a way for him to gain complete control over her.

Her grandmother, encouraging her to use her voice to its full extent, described it as “fire and Heaven all at once.” That might just as well have been a description of her life, especially with Ike, Heaven onstage and the fires of Hell off.

Ike, we learn, has his own troubled past. His dying father was refused treatment at a white hospital and spent his final days in a tent in the family’s front yard because it was said he smelled too bad to have in the house.

That’s not the only reminder of racism that was once rampant in parts of the U.S. The band is refused rooms in a Mississippi hotel that has vacancy and is forced to sleep in a bus. Then, a couple of police officers show up and harass them.

Even later, after Tina has left Ike and is on the verge of resurfacing, her new manager Roger Davies (Dylan S. Wallach) is told there is no way Columbia Records would sign her for racist reasons. Of course, that same exec gets down on his knees later to beg her to sign.

While certainly no excuse for his behavior as an adult, one is to believe Ike saw and experienced racial atrocities while growing up. That sadness carried into his adulthood and built a hatred and mistrust that destroyed his life and everyone close to him.

The second act begins with “Private Dancer,” one of Tina’s hits and certainly appropriate for her station in life at that time. Even apart Ike had control over her and it was several years before she broke through and escaped with the help of Davies, with whom she made it clear immediately that she was through being someone’s puppet.

Davies had no such intention. As a result, she rose to a stardom she dared not even dream about during her 16 years in captivity under Ike.

When she breaks out into Tina’s most famous solo song, “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” chills will literally overtake you. It’s not only a masterful piece of music, but also a revealing of her view of life at that time, one of not getting too close to anyone.

That would eventually change for Tina as she did marry again, to Erwin Bach, her spouse until her death in May of 2023.

Ike and Tina produced some music that remains timeless, most notably “Proud Mary.” Naturally, it’s one of the show’s highlights, though its performance is surrounded by another example of how much Tina hated her life then.

Chemistry is important for a romantic couple in a production, but the same goes for a couple such as Ike and Tina, taking negativity to a frightening level. Beverly embodies all the rage Ike was known for, making us love his performance and hate his character, much like Ike in real life.

Tina might well have given up every musical note that made her famous to escape the more than decade and a half of mental torture and physical abuse she endured. In the end, however, she triumphed and for that we should all be inspired.

Performing Arts Fort Worth presents ‘Tina — The Tina Turner Musical’

Where: Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth

When: Now through Feb. 11.

Tickets: basshall.com. Inventory is limited.