Broadway Tour of "Tina - The Tina Turner Musical" at the Orpheum Theatre

The latest jukebox bio-musical to hit Broadway, and now the Orpheum Theatre, is Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. It premiered on Broadway a few months before the long covid intermission, and received a full dozen Tony nominations in the covid-shortened 2020 season. The show resumed performances in 2021 and ran for another year, and is now hitting the road. With book by acclaimed playwright Katori Hall and a score entirely pulled from pop music (Tina's songs and others), the musical is a mix of songs performed in context (concerts and record studios) and sung by characters speaking to each other. You might get whiplash as we cover Tina's long life and prolific career, with topics like child abuse, domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, sexism, and ageism all touched upon but not dug too deeply into. I admit to not knowing much about Tina Turner other than a few of her hit songs, but came away from the show truly impressed by this music icon who had a second career as a single Black woman over the age of 40, when most of the music industry saw her as a has-been. With stunning performances by the huge cast, Tina Turner fans are sure to love this show, and those who aren't will like develop a new appreciation for her. This one's sticking around for two weeks, so you have a little more time to catch Tina before it closes on March 12 (click here for more info and official ticket site).

"Pussy Valley" at Mixed Blood Theatre

You know a play titled Pussy Valley is going to be on the edge, not your typical evening at the theater. And boy does it deliver! Mixed Blood Theatre's world premiere of the new play by Katori Hall (whose work was last seen last year on the Guthrie Proscenium Stage - the beautiful and imaginative The Mountaintop) is a raw and edgy look at the life of pole dancers in the Deep South. The playwright digs deep into this very specific world to find universal human truths. The result is funny, sexy, heart-breaking, and devastating, and yes, features some pretty awesome pole-dancing.

At the Pink Pony, we meet four very different women, whose life experiences have brought them to the pole for different reasons. There's tough Mercedes (an amazingly fit and fierce Jasmine Hughes), who uses her earnings to support her preacher father's church; fourth-generation pole dancer Get 'Em Gidget (the graceful Megan Rippey), who longs for somewhere that's green; mother of three Miss Mississippi (a vulnerable Joetta Wright), who hopes to escape her abusive boyfriend for the bright lights of L.A.; and mysterious newcomer Autumn Night (an enigmatic Tatiana Williams). Autumn's story is never fully revealed; she says that she's "all of the above," but maybe she represents anyone who's one step away from doing something desperate, daring, and dangerous, for a multitude of reasons. Presiding over the club like a cross between a mother hen and a warden is the cross-dressing Uncle Clifford, with an outstanding performance by Nicco Annan that is both hilariously entertaining and heart-breakingly vulnerable. They're supported by a wonderful cast of men (including James Craven as the preacher, Dustin Bronson in a Jekyll/Hyde performance as both Gidget's sweet boyfriend and Mississippi's horribly abusive boyfriend, and Ansa Akyea as the club bouncer and Mississippi's wealthy suitor), but this is really the women's story.

Get 'Em Gidget, Mercedes, and Miss Mississippi
(Megan Rippey, Jasmine Hughes,
and Joetta Wright, photo by Rich Ryan)

Each of the four women goes through her own personal journey over the course of the show, some for the better, some not so much. They each have a sort of dreamlike moment on the pole in which they express its deeper meaning in their life, in a weird way sort of like A Chorus Line (which just celebrated its 40th anniversary), only with pole dancers instead of chorus dancers. What it comes down to is that they're working towards a better life, for themselves, their children, their family, and pole dancing is the way that they've found to do that. Only they're never quite able to break out of it. On the one hand they're exploited and abused by the men around them, but on the other they own their power and take great pride in the artistry of the pole.

Speaking of artistry, the actors trained for a year to get in pole dancing shape,* and it's quite amazing what they've accomplished in that time. They're as strong, athletic, and graceful as professional pole dancers. OK I've never actually seen professional pole dancers, but I'm certain these women measure up! They physically and emotionally bring these complex and varied women to life.

Set designer Joseph Stanley has created the Pink Pony onstage with poles, a bar, and red velvet curtains. Although I'm surprised that the black box theater is set up as a traditional proscenium, especially after Colossal's brilliantly recreated football stadium. It would have been interesting to see a thrust set-up or something more intimate and club-like. Trevor Bowen's costume design brings authenticity to this world, and manages to create a specific personality for each of the women out of costumes that are in some cases just a swatch of spandex. Those of you sensitive to strobe lights, take note that there is ample use of them in this show, which creates some cool effects, but was a bit too much for my system to handle. I also had a hard time understanding some of the characters' accents, it's a very specific dialect, but fortunately Mixed Blood always has surtitles in their shows as yet another manifestation of their commitment to diversity of all kinds, including hearing ability.

Despite the salacious title and the presence of mostly naked women dancing on poles, Pussy Valley is a complex, deep, emotional story. I'm not sure it needs to be three hours long (I'm not sure any entertainment needs to be three hours long, other than Shakespeare and Sondheim and Lord of the Rings movies). There are a few scenes that could be trimmed or cut to make the story more compact, but it's an epic story. One that's difficult to watch at times because of the emotional and physical violence portrayed, but one that is compelling and engaging and hits you right in the gut. Playing now through May 20 - reserve tickets online for $20, or take your chances and show up within two hours before the show for free tickets as part of Mixed Blood's "Radical Hospitality" program.



*I predict a surge in pole dance classes in the next few weeks, check out Knockout Bodies in NE Minneapolis as an example.

"The Mountaintop" by Penumbra Theatre at the Guthrie Theater

Last Sunday I saw Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House in the Guthrie Studio Theater, an imagined conversation between the two men, one real and one imagined, on the night before the historic signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This Sunday I attended Penumbra's production of The Mountaintop in the Proscenium Theater, another imagined conversation between a real and imagined person on the eve of another important event in the history of Civil Rights. This time that conversation is between Martin Luther King, Jr. and a mysterious woman. It shows us a different side of this great and iconic man, one that's much more human. I found it to be funny, tragic, inspiring, and really beautiful.

As the audience is still filing into the rich red of the Guthrie Proscenium, Martin Luther King, Jr., in the form of the magnificent James T. Alfred, paces around his onstage hotel room, as we get a glimpse into the private time of this very public man. After several minutes, the lights go down and the play begins. Martin calls room service for coffee, which is delivered by the spunky hotel employee Camae (the delightful Erika LaVonn) on her first day on the job. The two embark on a frank and informal conversation, about Civil Rights as well as more mundane topics like cigarettes and style choices. It's soon revealed that Camae is not exactly who she says she is, and the play veers into the fantastical world of the imagination, although still grounded in reality. This play shows us that great leaders are not perfect. They have fears, flaws, and stinky feet, just like the rest of us. But yet they persevere and try to improve the world we live in, despite the personal costs.

This two-person cast, directed by Lou Bellamy, is absolutely captivating. James T. Alfred brings so much humanity and vulnerability to MLK, and he also portrays the commanding dignity of the preacher. Erika LaVonn is a true delight - charming, funny, spirited, and lively. The two of them create a wonderful space in which this inspiring story unfolds.

The Mountaintop judiciously employs some pretty fantastic technical elements of sets, sound, lighting, and video: the perfectly replicated 1960s hotel room, the weather effects of rain, snow, and lighting, Camae's special powers, the stars of the cosmos, and highlights of the last 45 years of history displayed in images on the back of the stage. Without these elements, the play would still be effective, but they make the message even more impactful. (Scenic design by Vicki Smith, lighting design by Don Darnutzer, and sound and video design by Martin Gwinup.)

One theme of the play is that Civil Rights and justice for all is a relay race, and Martin Luther King, Jr. ran just one leg of the race, albeit a pivotal one. This play makes me feel like all of us can and should take up the baton passed to us by MLK and continue his work and the work of so many others. Go see The Mountaintop, playing through April 19 at the Guthrie Theater, for an inspiring new look into the life of this legendary leader.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!*

*Martin Luther King's final speech.