Tina Turner Bio-Tuner Headed to the West End?

Michael Riedel of the New York Post reports a bio-tuner on Tina Turner Simply The Best test its wings in a London production before hitting Broadway.

The article says: "Simply the Best uses Turner's hit songs to dramatize her path from cotton-picking poverty to rock superstardom… Simply the Best closely tracks What's Love Got To Do With It, the absorbing 1993 Tina Tuner biopic that starred Angela Bassett and, as Ike, Laurence Fishburne."

Among the songs set to be featured in the show are "Nutbush City Limits," "I Can't Stand the Rain," "Let's Stay Together," "Private Dancer" and, inevitably, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

The story begins with Anna Mae from Nutbush, Tennessee, and follows her to St. Louis, where Ike Turner (Tina's abusive ex-husband) discovers her singing at a club.  Ike and Anna (later renaming herself Tina) begin a music career together, but soon, record executives are more interested in Tina's performance-potential, and Ike turns violent.  After their divorce, Tina's career explodes as she transforms into the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll in the 1980s.

Riedel explains: "The musical goes wacky when it shifts to Ancient Egypt…Tina believes she's the reincarnation of Hatshepsut, whose reign from 1479 to 1458 B.C. was prosperous and peaceful. Hatshepsut prevented her evil stepson, Thutmose III (that's Ike), from assuming the throne (though he seized it when she died). The Egyptian queen watches over Tina. When Ike pulls a gun on Tina, Hatshepsut shields her and the gun 'leaps' out of Ike's hand (special effects!)."

It is rumored a casting director scouted Fantasia (currently starring in The Color Purple) for the lead role.

There are no further details on casting, production rehearsal dates, or a West End theatre.

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