Tina: The Tina Turner Musical continues at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre after returning to Broadway October 8, 2021. During a busy December, company member Ari Groover gave Playbill an exclusive look inside the life of an actor during a two-show day.
The musical follows the life of Tina Turner from humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her transformation into a global star, featuring several of her hits, including "River Deep Mountain High," "Proud Mary," "Private Dancer," and "(Simply) The Best."
Following premieres in London’s West End and Hamburg, Germany, the musical opened on Broadway November 7, 2019. It would go on to earn 12 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, with Adrienne Warren winning Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Tina Turner.
"Wassup, beautiful people! Ari Grooves here! I play Alline, Tina's sister. I just had coffee, and I am ready to start this two-show day."
"The calm before the storm or better yet, the girl without the wig, honey!"
"The wonderful Leandra Ellis Gaston getting ready for her wig. She trying to be shy, DON'T BE FOOLED!"
"Our wonderful hair team prepping for this two-show day. It's not easy since they have to prep our hair to handle all the dancing and twirling we do in this show... TWICE! This is Krystal Balleza in this pic. She is dope!"
"Look at all of these wigs... LORD HELP US LOL"
"Daniel J. Watts, who plays Ike, loves to give me ballet moves. Look at his eyes, he shocked himself with this one LOL!"
"The beautiful NaTonia Monet and Nick Rashad Burroughs giving us Black love!"
"We get to see this beautiful board that one of our dressers, Dan Tomansky, recreates everyday. Each day, we learn a fact about that particular day."
"It's dinner time and my station is a mess. If you look in the back, you can see my wig hanging up because I washed it and didn't have a block to dry it on LOL! Look, you gotta make do with what ya got sometimes!"
"It wasn't good at all"
"How our Ike, Daniel J. Watts, feels about this second show."
"Gerald Caesar, Nick Burroughs, Ayla Ciccone-Burton, and Allysa Shorte love to pose for the camera!"
"I mean, THEY REALLY LOVE IT... We almost missed our entrance!"
"Charlie Franklin, who plays Roger, wanted to be a bird for the day. Tweet, tweet!"
"We have a dope sisterhood in this cast. (Holli Conway, Me, Kayla Davion, Katie Webber, and Ayla Ciccone-Burton)."
"I got a vegan red velvet cheesecake for Skye Turner's birthday, who is our Little Anna Mae. She sings down, yall!"
"I am also a Tina cover, and I got to put on my Tina outfit. Excited to go on one of these days. Stay tuned!!"
"Well, we made it to the end everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Tina and our shenanigans!"
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