(Jayna Elise as Tina Turner in TINA – The Tina Turner Musical – Photo By Julieta Cervantes)
By Jerome Langston
“She’s an absolute legend,” says singer/actress Jayna Elise, about the iconic Rock & Roll Queen, Tina Turner. “She had such tenacity and just perseverance. And I think that really gets highlighted in this adaptation that we do of her life.” Jayna plays the iconic title role of Tina Turner, in the second North American tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, which plays Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall for 8 performances this January 7-12. At the time of our chat, the singer, who is a DC native, was just starting her morning in Knoxville, Tennessee, where the Tina cast was in town for a string of performances at the Tennessee Theatre. The current show is on the road until July 2025.
Portraying Tina Turner was not something that the singer ever expected would happen, but her life as a young performer has definitely prepared her for it. Jayna attended DC’s prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts. “That’s where I honed in on a lot of things, and my craft,” she says. Prior to high school, she gained attention from posting YouTube videos as a tween, which led to various opportunities. She was only 14 when she appeared on season 11 of America’s Got Talent, as Jayna Brown. And it was also as Jayna Brown, that she attracted national attention starring as Shannon in the Tyler Perry play, Madea’s Neighbors from Hell.
All of that notable, early success, laid the foundation for Jayna’s bigger success, earlier this year, starring as a contestant, on season 22 of American Idol. Jayna made it all the way into the Top 12, before being eliminated. During her run on the apparently still popular reality TV singing competition show, she impressed audiences and the judges, with strong vocal performances of classics by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. After wrapping up filming earlier this year, she was contacted to send in an audition tape for the role of Tina in the second national tour, and eventually booked the coveted part. The tour kicked off this past September, in Akron, Ohio.
“She was someone who I listened to frequently, growing up,” says Jayna, about mid-way through our chat. Turns out both Jayna and her mom shared a love for classic rock music, which Tina was a radio staple of, during the 1980s. “That’s one of the coolest things. Someone that I looked up to, especially in the rock space,” she adds. “That’s my favorite genre of music. So just to be able to do this, and pay homage to her. Someone that I grew up being inspired by, is incredible.”
The life of Tina Turner, née Anna Mae Bullock, has inspired millions of people — fans and admirers, for at least 5 decades. From her early 1960s hits with her often-abusive husband, Ike Turner, who was nevertheless an awesome musician, to their first massive hit in 1971, “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner redefined how female singers were expected to perform, with her high-energy, athletic performances with the Ikettes. And that unique voice of hers, which would belt out early R&B, soul and Rock tunes with equal ease and success. After their tumultuous split, and her eventual, iconic comeback in the early 1980s, with 1984’s Private Dancer album, which was a career-defining multi-platinum success, featuring the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and winning her multiple Grammy awards in 1985, Tina Turner became one of popular music’s most successful female recording artists of all time.
Tina Turner became a global superstar who sold out stadiums at her peak, won every music award available, and sold over a 100 million records. She also became the defining symbol of talent and drive overcoming remarkable odds. Tina was in her mid-forties at the time of her biggest commercial successes, and still reigned for many years afterwards, as an enduring Rock & Roll, sex symbol. Born into poverty in late 1939, in Tennessee of all places, the trailblazing powerhouse, who was arguably even more beloved in Europe than she was here in America, lived till the age of 83, transitioning peacefully in her adopted home of Switzerland, on May 24, 2023.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is a jukebox musical that explores the well-documented, inspiring life of the superstar singer/dancer/actress, whose life was heavily touched by domestic abuse, racism, sexism, and ultimately, both physical and spiritual transformation. With a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall, the show opened on Broadway in November of 2019, and would go on to win a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, for Adrienne Warren’s stellar work starring as Tina. Warren is now an acclaimed Broadway star, who just happens to be a Hampton Roads native, and even attended our prestigious Governor’s School for the Arts. The first North American tour kicked off in September of 2022, and ran till August of 2024. Though the Broadway run was perhaps not as successful as producers would have hoped for — with the show interrupted by 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic, it did receive critical acclaim, and the national tours have clearly done well.
“It is an incredibly taxing show,” says Jayna, towards the end of our conversation. She is on stage for practically the entire show, which clocks in at about 2 hours, and 40 minutes, with an intermission. She loves it though, and mentions to me that one of her favorite moments in the show is her performance as Tina, of “River Deep — Mountain High,” as well as her take on “The Best.” She says “it just turns into a complete concert moment, at that point.” Sterling Baker-McClary plays Ike Turner in the show, and Jayna is quick to compliment his work, and their strong rapport. “He’s nothing like the character he portrays,” she adds. When the show makes its way to Norfolk, Jayna is looking forward to having family from Virginia, see her in the show. And though touring is “not for the weak,” Jayna is happy for this opportunity to portray one of her idols. “It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve learned so much. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
