By Liam Rudden. Main image: Elle as Tina
On 24 May 2023, Anna Mae Bullock, the ‘Queen of Rock ’n’ – Roll better known to the world as Tina Turner, died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, at the age of 83.
It was a day that Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy will never forget as, at the time, she was starring as the pop legend in the Australian production of Tina – The Tina Turner Musical. It wouldn’t be until the next day that she would learn of the sad news, making that night’s performance one of the most emotional of her career.
Looking back, she recalls: “When I first performed this show, Tina was still alive, a week after we opened, she passed. I didn’t know until I started receiving messages from people the next day telling me how sorry they were to hear the sad news. I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa…’
“That night, the house was packed, people wanted to be there to pay their respects and show their gratitude. Having experienced doing the show with the potential for Tina to walk in the door at any moment, that night I experienced it with the potential of her presence being there… the emotion was phenomenal, a different level of performance, like an out of body experience.”
Jochebel is one of two performers reprising the role as Tina for the UK tour of the smash hit musical that charts the highs and lows of the singer’s journey from Nutbush, Tennessee, to becoming one of the world’s best loved performers. Joining her on the production – directed by Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) – is Elle Ma-Kinga N’Zuzi. The pair will alternate the role.
The first UK Tour is also the eighth production of the show; Tina – The Tina Turner Musical premiered at London’s Aldwych Theatre in 2018, a Broadway production opened the following year. Further productions followed, in Hamburg in 2019, Stuttgart, where Elle joined the production, in 2020, Madrid in 2021 and Sydney, where Jochebel came onboard in 2023. There was also a US Tour, in 2022.
Today, both Tinas are together, sharing their love of the star who first came to public attention as one half of Ike and Tina Turner and later scored global success on her own with songs such as What’s Love Got To Do With It?, We Don’t Need Another Hero, and, of course, The Best.
“My foster dad was a huge fan of Tina Turner, consequently, she was the first black artist I was introduced to as he had all her cassettes and CDs,” explains Elle.
“I’d dance in front of the TV whenever she was on, that’s why they sent me to dance school, to stop me blocking the view of the telly.”
As a child, Elle’s party-piece was Proud Mary, indeed you could say she was destined to play her current role,
“Maybe there was something in the stars,” she agrees, admitting her road to the musical was ‘random’.
“I was in rock bands at the time and at several concerts I’d been asked to sing the likes of Proud Mary. I was working in Germany when the producers needed an alternate Tina and they emailed me. I thought, ‘Why not?’ So I went along and I got the job. It just happened.”
It was at the age of seven that Jochebel first came across the name Tina Turner thanks to a singing birthday card she’d bought for her mum. She laughs as she recalls: ”That was the first time I ever came across her name, it was back in the day when you got these cards that, when opened, would sing. This one sang, ‘Simply the best,’ over and over again.”
To their regret, neither met the rock legend whose story they tell, the former missing the opportunity to do so by just a few months.
Jochebel as Tina
Being on stage when Tina died meant Jochebel couldn’t pay her respects to the star until the tour had finished, at which point she embarked on a pilgrimage to Switzerland, to visit Tina’s home.
“I went to her house and laid some flowers by her door,” she says. “Unlike many huge stars who live in secluded communities, her house was by the road, she always wanted to be accessible.
“I spent 45 minutes there; I knew she wasn’t there but I wanted the connection of having walked the streets that she would have walked. It allowed me to say, ‘Thank you,’ to her for being the incredible woman she was and for giving strength to so many people. It was a visit filled with joy and gratitude.”
With such an iconic back-catalogue to choose from, it almost seems unfair to ask the pair to choose their favourite song, for the record it’s Tina’s cover of The Tramps’ classic floor-filler, Disco Inferno, although Jochebel adds: “I also love singing I Can’t Stand The Rain because a sample of it was used in Missy Elliot’s The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) – I like that, the past and the present coming together through Tina’s influence.”
Elle ranks River Deep Mountain High and, unsurprisingly, Proud Mary among her favourites, but admits: “ It’s so hard to choose, however, my favourite moment in the show is when it’s time to sing Simply The Best. The second the audience hears the introduction they are on their feet, singing out loud and in that moment Tina is alive. I look up and think, ‘Tina’s up there somewhere watching this going, ‘Oh, this one again…’.”
As they prepare to take Tina’s story around the UK, just what would they say to the Queen of Rock if were she were to appear in their dressing room one night?
“Thank you… but then there would be so much to say, I think I would lock the door so that we could have a chat for about three hours…” laughs Elle.”And then I’d cry.”
“I’d scream, either out of excitement or fear…” beams Jochebel, without a second’s hesitation. “And when I’d finished screaming, I’d ask, ‘What are you doing here?’ Because I’m not worthy of being in the presence of such greatness.”
Elle speaks for both of them, when she says: “That’s the great thing about Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, it ensures her amazing story can live on, and on, and on, and we are honoured to be keeping a part of her alive.”
Tickets for (Tuesday 7 – Saturday 18 October) are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
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