River Deep: What's Dramaturgy Got to Do With It?

I'm hesitant to criticize the weak dramaturgy in director/choreographer Gabrielle Lansner's new performance piece River Deep, A Tribute To Tina Turner because, as the subtitle says, it was created to be a tribute and not exactly a play.  Or even a musical play.  When Lansner's dancers shimmy and go-go to Philip Hamilton's rock and roll score, the hour-long production has a vibrant and nostalgic energy.  It's when the music stops and the cast delivers monologues she adapted from Tina Turner's autobiography, I, Tina (co-authored by Kurt Loder) that the production gets messy.  The upshot is, if you're a fan of Tina Turner as both an artist and a courageous survivor of spousal abuse there's a good chance you'll have a fun time celebrating the woman's accomplishments.  If you go in expecting some kind of narrative, there's a good chance you'll leave impressed with the dancing, but unmoved by the threadbare treatment of her story.

The major flaw is that Ike Turner, not Tina, is the central character of the piece.  The charismatic artist and businessman, fueled by addictions and angered by discrimination, created "Ike and Tina Turner" with an interchangeable collection of back-up ladies known as The Ikettes.  The excerpts from I, Tina, spoken to the audience by Tina, various Ikettes and the group's road manager, Rhonda Graam, are only brief passages about their personal dealings with the man, so by end of the piece, when Tina talks about her own survival, there's little dramatic impact because nothing in the text was leading up to the moment.  Overall, the acting isn't bad – just lacking in any kind of detail.

Hamilton's score is a serviceable collection of rock and r&b in the style of Ike and Tina's brand of pop performed by a live band (One Tina Turner hit, "In Your Wildest Dreams" is included), but the songs generally serve as a background for Lansner's dancers.  Taking turns between singing, acting and Iketting, Erica Bowen, Zainab Jah, Heather Lind, Paula McGonagle, McKenzie Frye and Shekitra Starke all supply sparks of excitement performing classic 60's moves, especially that signature hunched over backwards boogie.  Pat Hall, as Tina, also displays some fine dance moves and delivers warm, honest vocals.  They look great in Liz Prince's glittery and fringy costumes and Stephanie Berger projects background photos of the cast in appropriately cheesy "action" shots, reminiscent of 1960's-70's TV variety shows.

The piece's highlight is a ballet sequence called "Tina's Chant" beginning with Ikettes snapping their fingers and strutting in defiant pride, but gradually succumbing to the pain and abuse inflicted by their boss, only to pick themselves up and then go on snapping as if nothing happened.  Hall follows with a solo following the same structure.  It's Lansner's most emotionally and dramatically effective work, giving Hall a chance, through dance, to say more about her character than any words she speaks.  Though much of the show is entertaining, this is the only time River Deep shows any depth.

Photo by Stephanie Berger:
Pat Hall (right) and company

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