Characters
ANNA MAE BULLOCK
THE ARTIST WHO LATER BECOMES KNOWN AS TINA TURNER
RICHARD BULLOCK
ANNA MAE’S FATHER
ZELMA BULLOCK
ANNA MAE’S MOTHER
ALLINE BULLOCK
ANNA MAE’S SISTER
GRAN GEORGEANNA (GG)
ANNA MAE’S GRANDMOTHER
IKE TURNER
MUSCIAN, SONG WRITER. tINA tURNER’S HUSBAND BETWEEN 1962-1978
CRAIG TURNER
SON OF TURNER AND RAYMOND HILL
RONNIE TURNER
SON OF TINA TURNER AND IKE TURNER
THE IKETTES
BACKING SINGERS AND DANCERS FOR IKE AND TINA TURNER
RAYMOND
SAXOPHONE PLAY WITH IKE TURNER’S KINGS OF rHYTHM
NICHOLAS SKILLBECK
MUSIC SUPERVISOR
RHONDA GRAAM
Manager of Ike & Tiina Turner Revue, and later Tina Turner
PHIL SPECTOR
Record producer
ROGER DAVIES
Manager of Olivia Newton-John, and later Tina Turner
JOHN CARPENTER
Record executive at Capitol Records
MARTYN WARE
Member of the band Heaven 17, who worked on Tina’s early solo recordings
TERRY
Record producer
ERWYN BACH
Marketing executive at Capitol Records, later Tina Turner’s partner. They married in 2013.
Other characters, played by the ensemble
MOTEL MANAGER
POLICE OFFICERS
BODACIOUS WOMAN
STRUNG WOMAN – shoots herself in a jealous rage
SOUND ENGINEER
TONI – choreographer in London
SUITS – ‘THE CAPITOL RECORDS BRASS”
DRESSER
STAGE MANAGER
Other names and references
Olivia Newton–John (born 1948)
Australian-British singer and actress. Newton-John played Sandy in Grease in 1978 and was known for her ‘clean-cut’ image. Newton-John wanted to take more risks with her image and with Roger Davies achieved this partly through her album Physical in 1981. In Tina we see Roger arguing with Carpenter about the suitability of this song for her. Davies was right: the song was number 1 in the Billboard 100 for 10 weeks.
Mick Jagger (born 1943)
Lead singer of the Rolling Stones. Ike and Tina Turner were the opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1966, and Tina performed with them again in 1981. Tina sang a duet with Jagger for the Live Aid concert in 1985, singing It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It).
David Bowie (1947-2016)
British singer-songwriter and actor, also known in the 1970s as Ziggy Stardust. As well as being a solo artist famous for hits such as Let’s Dance and Heroes, Bowie also dueted with high profile artists: Under Pressure with Queen, and Dancing on the Street with Mick Jagger are two such examples. It is said that it was Bowie who persuaded studio executives to attend Tina’s performance at the Ritz (reportedly missing his own launch for Let’s Dance), the performance which secured her a deal with Capitol Records.
Heaven 17
1980s pop band comprising of Martin Ware, Ian Marsh and Glenn Gregory, recording songs such as temptation, but also producing music under the name of British Electric Foundation. Heaven 17 also can be heard in the backing vocals in Let’ Stay Together, and the band members are credited with helping resurrecting Tina’s career in the early 1980s.
Grace Jones (born 1948)
Jamaican born singer , actress and model, popular and prolific in the 1980s.
Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound
Phil Spector’s method of music production is known for its richness and depth of sound. Spector likened the approach to putting together the pieces of a jigsaw, and augmenting sounds by doubling or tripling instruments on each line of music. One example would be combining the sound of a traditional piano, a harpsichord and an electronic piano or keyboard rather than a simple piano-only line. These different sounds would be combined in the mixing process to the point where a listener would not be able to identify the three original, separate sounds but instead experience a richness of piano-like sound.