Broadway in San Antonio’s TINA – The Tina Turner Musical tells the story of a young girl who grew up in a farming community in rural Tennessee and rose to international fame as the “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll.”
The musical opens Jan. 16 at the Majestic Theatre and runs through Jan. 21, coinciding with DreamWeek and offering an opportunity to consider how a powerful Black woman’s stardom has inspired and influenced others to push hard toward their dreams.
“Her struggle in the music industry, the domestic violence, [as an] African American female, her whole story is an inspiration,” said Renee Watson, who chaired the San Antonio Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission in 2021 and 2022 and was the first female chair of the commission’s March Committee.
“Because what [Martin Luther King Jr.] dreamed about is self-sufficiency, education and learning, getting out there, the world supporting you, to have multicultural communities supporting you. And her life is a prime example of that.”
Strength and resilience
Turner began life as Anna Mae Bullock picking cotton in Nutbush, a rural Tennessee farming community so small it doesn’t rate as a town. She later married musician Ike Turner, who renamed her Tina, positioning her as the vocalist for his powerful rock ’n’ roll ensemble. But his physical and emotional abuse at home and overworking her onstage frayed their personal and professional relationship.
Her opening verse lyrics to “Nutbush City Limits,” the 1973 song she wrote to signal independence from her abusive husband, succinctly describe the scene:
A church house, gin house
Schoolhouse, outhouse
On highway number nineteen
The people keep the city clean
Broadway actress Roz White plays Turner’s mother, Zelma Bullock, in TINA. In a videoconference interview during rehearsals in Austin, White marveled at how Turner, having endured such hardship, could even imagine creating a better future for herself.
“To see that somebody who came from that could go to selling out an 180,000–seat stadium in Brazil, it just certainly gave me hope,” White said. “So that’s why I always put her as ‘goals.’ I always put Tina as ‘goals.’”
As a high school freshman in 1984, White would sneak down to her grandmother’s basement in Washington, D.C. to listen to records deemed too mature for her age, including music by Betty Wright, Millie Jackson, and Turner’s Private Dancer album that would rocket her to solo artist stardom.
“Tina Turner became this symbol in my household growing up of strength and resilience,” White said. The Ike and Tina records, however, were not talked about.
Later as a student at Howard University, White saw the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do With It, which recounts Turner’s rise to stardom under Ike’s abuse and how she broke free to chart her own course.
Tina’s story resonated deeply with White. “I was a witness to abuse in my home since I was a very, very young child. And, you know, it was a big family secret.” No one talked about the Ike and Tina days because it would have shed light on what was happening in her household, she said.
But the experience was enlightening. “All of a sudden, I saw what happened in my household growing up was also someone else’s life [who] actually was able to overcome it,” White said.
An enduring symbol
White has learned compassion toward Turner’s mother Zelma Bullock, who actually left the family when Turner was 11 years old — also to exercise her own power and escape an abusive husband.
“Tina always felt abandoned, she always felt that her mother just did not love her,” White said, and the two women were not able to reconcile during Zelma’s lifetime. But Turner worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall to imagine a reconciliation scene for the musical that had not previously been included in her life stories.
“That’s a mature woman looking back,” White said, able to recognize and respect what her mother endured and the similarities with her own life.
Watson said Turner stands as an enduring symbol of Black female entrepreneurship and resilience and provides an exemplar for the people she now works with as director of the Bexar County Small Business and Entrepreneurship Department. And Watson did not hesitate to connect the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with the story of Tina Turner.
Watson referenced the People’s Campaign MLK King was promoting when he was killed in 1968, which promoted entrepreneurship to empower Black communities.
“My job every day is working for entrepreneurs … to talk about self-sufficiency and economic development, to lift yourself out of poverty,” Watson said.
Joy and celebration
Though Turner is not known for speaking out directly on the issues of racism, sexism, feminism and ageism that impacted her life, White said she used her talents to become the soundtrack of the 1960s and 1970s generations that took the streets in support of civil rights and equal opportunity for all.
“We, as a people, I believe, have that duality — where we are always fighting for a cause because that’s just the nature of our history in this country,” White said. “But we also have the ability to bring joy and to bring a sense of celebration into a moment that can be somber, or even difficult.”
That celebration will be on display at the Majestic Theatre in a production punctuated by Turner’s many mega-popular hit songs. Tickets priced from $55 to $160 are available through the Broadway in San Antonio website for Jan. 17-21 performances including weekend matinees.
