Over 100,000 new tickets released for West End production of TINA

Also today, the Producers release the first of three short films charting the development of this world premiere. Phyllida Lloyd, Director of TINA, visits Tina Turner to talk about life, music and the stage. From the Academy Award-winning producer Simon Chinn (Man on Wire and Searching for Sugarman), the shorts, produced by Lightbox, will be available to watch exclusively on the official TINA website and social media channels.

Written by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, choreography is by Anthony van Laast, with set and costume designs by Mark Thompson, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, lighting by Bruno Poet, sound by Nevin Steinberg, projection design by Jeff Sugg and orchestrations by Ethan Popp.

The cast comprises Adrienne Warren, who plays the title role, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Ike Turner, Madeline Appiah as Tina’s mother Zelma Bullock, Jenny Fitzpatrick as the alternate Tina, Lorna Gayle as Tina’s Grandmother GG, Tom Godwin as Record Producer Phil Spector and Lyricist Terry Britten, Francesca Jackson as Ike and Tina’s manager Rhonda Graam, Aisha Jawando as Tina’s sister Alline Bullock, Natey Jones as Tina’s father Richard Bullock and Tina’s first love Raymond Hill, Gerard McCarthy as record company Marketing Manager Erwin Bach and Ryan O’Donnell as Tina’s Manager Roger Davies. They are joined by ensemble members Tsemaye Bob-Egbe, Keisher Downie, Kit Esuruoso who also plays Tina’s son Craig Hill, Jammy Kasongo, Sia Kiwa, Jason Langley, Kayleigh McKnight, Baker Mukasa and Tanisha Spring and swings Derek Aidoo, Gavin Alex, Edward Bourne, Candace Furbert, Hannah Jay-Allan and Rodney Vubya. Children’s casting will be announced in due course.

From humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her transformation into the global Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner didn’t just break the rules, she rewrote them. This new stage musical, presented in association with Tina Turner herself, reveals the untold story of a woman who dared to defy the bounds of her age, gender and race.

Adrienne Warren will make her West End stage debut as Tina. Her most recent theatre credit was in Shuffle Along at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, for which she received a Tony nomination. Her other US theatre credits include Bring It On The Musical at St. James Theater, Dreamgirls at the Apollo Theater, which was followed by a National Tour, and The Wiz at Encores City Center. She has toured and recorded with the multi-platinum selling Trans Siberian Orchestra for which she received her first Platinum and Gold records. Her television credits include the Amazon Pilot Point of Honor, Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains, People in New Jersey, Irreversibleand Black Box. In March this year, she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Pops.

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith was last on stage playing Laertes in Hamlet at the Barbican alongside Benedict Cumberbatch. His previous theatre credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Edward II, Antigone and Death and the King’s Horseman for the National Theatre, The Low Road for the Royal Court, Feast, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and The Changeling for the Young Vic, Love's Labour’s Lost for Shakespeare's Globe and Detaining Justice, Seize the Day and Fabulation for the Tricycle Theatre. His television credits include The Split, Wagstaffe, Class, Capital, Crackanory, Worricker Trilogy, The Last Panthers and Midsomer Murders. Holdbrook-Smith’s film work includes Paddington 2, The Commuter, Justice League, Doctor Strange, The Double and Roadkill and the forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns and Ghost Stories.

Katori Hall is a writer and performer from Memphis, Tennessee. In 2016, her play Children of Killers was performed as part of the National Theatre’s Connections Festival. Her play The Mountaintop, premiering at Theatre503 in 2009, received a transfer to Trafalgar Studios and became the winner of the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, and following the West End run the play opened on Broadway in October 2011 starring Samuel L Jackson and Angela Bassett. Hall’s other writing includes the award-winning Hurt Village currently in development for a feature film, Hoodoo Love, Remembrance, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!, Our Lady of Kibeho, Pussy Valleyand The Blood Quilt. Earlier this month Hall was named Artistic Director of the Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis.

Phyllida Lloyd returns to the West End where she has previously directed the world premiere of MAMMA MIA!, currently still running in London after 18 years. Her production subsequently opened on Broadway and worldwide becoming a global phenomenon before she directed a film version for Universal Pictures. More recently she has directed a Shakespeare Trilogy for the Donmar at King’s Cross - Henry IV, Julius Caesar and The Tempest, all of which were also seen in New York where she has previously directed Taming of the Shrew at the Public Theatre and Josephine and I at Joe’s Pub at The Public, a transfer from The Bush. Previously for the Donmar Warehouse she directed Mary Stuart which transferred to the Apollo Theatre and then Broadway, The Threepenny Opera and Boston Marriage. She directed Six Degrees of Separation, Hysteria and Wild East all for the Royal Court, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with Fiona Shaw at the Old Vic Tunnels, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Epidaurus, The Way of the World, Pericles, What the Butler Saw, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Duchess of Malfi all for the National Theatre, Artists and Admirers and The Virtuoso for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her other film credits include The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep in the role of Margaret Thatcher, and Gloriana. Lloyd has directed many productions for the Royal Opera House and English National Opera and as well as winning multiple awards for her work, in 2012 she was awarded a CBE.

TINA is produced by Stage Entertainment, Joop van den Ende and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner.

Adrienne Warren is appearing with the support of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange program between American Equity and UK Equity.

Tina the Musical