The era of the jukebox musical, epitomized by the sensational “Jersey Boys,” is winding down.
Now it’s time to bow down to the diva musical.
Critics threw rocks at “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” but so far the dents are minor. The production, starring LaChanze, is grossing more than $1 million a week and has racked up advance ticket sales of $12 million.
Add to that the (expensive) sippy cups of wine that women in the mood to party are buying before, during and after the show, and “Summer” is shaping up to be a nice little earner for its backers.
Fast on its high heels are two more shows about women with big hair: “The Cher Show,” in tryouts in Chicago, and, from London, “Tina: The Musical,” about Tina Turner.
Nobody on Broadway was paying much attention to “Tina” as we were focused on another Tina — Fey, whose “Mean Girls,” despite being shut out at the Tonys, is a big hit.
But “Tina” opened to unexpected raves in April and now Broadway theater owners are scrambling to find a home for it here, probably in the fall of 2019.
“[This] is a heady celebration of triumph over adversity that left the audience … breathless,” Michael Billington, whose tastes usually run to disco queens Beckett and Ibsen, wrote in The Guardian.
The star turn in the show belongs to Adrienne Warren, who was nominated for a Tony in the short-lived “Shuffle Along.”
Mark my words: Warren will win the Tony when “Tina” lands on Broadway.
“She is bound for true greatness,” says a London friend, who had never heard of her until he attended an early preview. “We are in the presence of a star.”
“Tina” is based on Turner’s memoir “I, Tina” as well as the terrific movie “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” starring Angela Bassett.
Katori Hall, who wrote the Martin Luther King Jr. play “The Mountaintop,” adapted Turner’s story for the stage. The director of this slick production is Phyllida Lloyd, who’s still counting the money she made from “Mamma Mia!”
“Tina” charts Turner’s rise from an awkward girl who sang in the church choir in Nutbush, Tenn., to superstardom. Hall’s script doesn’t flinch from the abuse Turner endured from her husband, Ike.
Ike could easily be a one-note villain, but Kobna Holdbrook-Smith delivers a subtle performance. Audiences recoil at his violent temper, but understand his frustration with the music business that, in the ’50s, made sure black performers still sat at the back of the bus.
Holdbrook-Smith, who starred in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange,” is “absolutely” coming to Broadway with Warren, a production source says.
The score has theatergoers dancing in the aisles to such gems as “Let’s Stay Together,” “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and “Private Dancer.”
A few kinks have to be worked out. The show clocks in at three hours, so the creative team is trimming and tightening.
I hear Warren’s missed a few performances, which causes havoc at the box office since she’s emerged as a star in the West End. But she’s getting a handle on the demands of the role, and will have to commit to at least seven performances a week in New York.
“Tina” is, by all accounts, a much stronger show than its original incarnation, a script of which I have in my file of theatrical curiosities.
In that version, called “Simply the Best,” Tina Turner was the reincarnation of Hatshepsut, who ruled over Egypt from 1478 to 1458 BC.
“Simply the Best” was simply bizarre, and it was shelved after a few workshops in London. Turner’s producers persuaded her to turn the show over to Hall, who’s dispensed with the reincarnation mumbo-jumbo and fashioned a compelling tale of a diva who fought all sorts of demons and won.