Tina - The Tina Turner Musical: Ruva Ngwenya on playing an icon, mourning her death and coming back to Perth

“Ruva is a beautiful performer who I know will bring her own joy and her soul to this role.” There are compliments, and then there are words of praise bestowed on you from an idol whose music changed the direction of your life as a teenager. Though before Ruva Ngwenya received the compliment of a lifetime from the late superstar Tina Turner, the Melbourne-born performer underwent 12 gruelling auditions as well as vigorous dance rounds that left her close to being sick. She was walking to the grocery store when she received the call of her career. Ngwenya had been selected to play the titular role in the Australian iteration of Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. She immediately burst into tears. The musical was produced in association with Turner herself, premiering in London’s West End in 2018. It lays the rock legend’s — born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 — life out bare, unapologetically navigating through the themes of racism, sexism, domestic violence and ageism that plagued her life. From her troubled childhood growing up in rural Tennessee to her abusive marriage to Ike which inevitably left her with nothing, the late Turner has said she spent a lot of her life afraid, riddled with guilt and fear. Despite the horrors she faced, the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s story is one of resilience and triumph. Following her divorce, and years of tireless dedication to her craft, Turner experienced another spectacular rise to success in her forties. She sold more tickets to her concerts than any solo performer in the world. At 44, she was the oldest woman to top the Billboard chart. She performed with the likes of David Bowie, Sir Mick Jagger, Jimmy Barnes and Beyonce. Turner also embraced a second shot at love with Erwin Bach, a music producer sent to pick her up from a German airport in 1985, who she married 27 years later. It’s a story that Ngwenya now makes her own on stage several nights each week. In 2024, Perth audiences can see her bring it to life at Crown Theatre. It was ahead of the first Australian performance in Sydney when Turner’s letter, filled with hope and well wishes, was read aloud to the production. “It was almost like she’s giving us Tina, and that was very special,” says Ngwenya. “It gave me a sense of freedom to do the work … but then to release it and to go out there (on stage) and be free, to do the best I can.” To prepare for the role of a lifetime, Ngwenya underwent rigorous training in London, followed by months of rehearsing in Australia. The bio-jukebox musical demanded she be a triple threat, requiring Ngwenya to act her way through challenging scenes, keep up with meticulous choreography and capture the soaring heights of Turner’s voice. If there is a Tina Turner documentary, film, clip, interview or memoir in existence — Ngwenya has devoured it. The quote “freedom is on the other side of discipline” was one Ngwenya says she embraced during her research and rehearsals, believing the more of Turner she was able to absorb the more it would come out in her on stage. “And it does, I see videos (of myself) and I’m like ‘that’s what Tina does!’ but I didn’t even know I was doing it,” she laughs. Ngwenya’s embodiment of Turner’s trademark moves; her shimmies or swagger, her expressive facial movements, her awe-inspiring performances (once described as having “wallpaper-peeling power” by Rolling Stones journalist Kurt Loder) is uncanny. Her voice and acting also morphs and matures throughout the performance to reflect Turner’s own journey over the years. Turner was right, Ngwenya brings her own joy and her soul to the role. After the hundreds of hours spent in Turner’s heels each night, Ngwenya felt she intimately understood the parts of the iconic performer that she had been willing to share with the world. So, when it was announced Turner had died at home in Switzerland following a long term illness on May 24, Ngwenya found her death difficult to fathom. “I definitely went into mourning and felt a bit panicked,” she explains. “This feeling of ‘how am I going to do this without you’, making sure we’re doing it right … I felt very alone. “Now that she’s gone, it feels like it’s up to us to fill those shoes. It is an impossible task to fill Tina Turner’s shoes, but we do the best that we can and accept that we’re doing what she would have wanted, because she had a very intimate hand in creating the show. “This is her legacy, and we have comfort in that we’re contributing to her legacy in a positive way.” As Australia suffers through a domestic violence epidemic, there were 38 deaths of women in the first 30 weeks of 2023 alone, sharing Turner’s story of surviving and escaping an abusive marriage with her sons has never been more important. “It’s an honour to tell this story for the many people going through it,” says Ngwenya. “To shed light on it (domestic violence) and to hopefully spark conversation in communities, at home, and to make people feel uncomfortable — the people who need to feel uncomfortable.” The brave actor who takes on the unlikeable role of Ike is Nigerian-born Australian singer-songwriter and dancer Tim Omaji, also known to many as Timomatic. He embodies the conniving, drug-fuelled musician and talent scout so convincingly, there were a few boos from a Sydney audience during a particularly tough scene. In reality though, Omaji is a lovely person, and a performer Ngwenya has worked alongside in countless shows, including Moulin Rouge! The Musical. While Ngwenya didn’t make it to WA for its recent Crown shows (she was already in Turner mode), she’s spent time in Perth during her time in The Lion King, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical and Madiba the Musical — also alongside Omaji. “I’m keen to get to Perth, it’s been awhile,” she says. “I’m staying in Scarborough, near the beach, I’m excited to get away from Melbourne-Sydney, Melbourne-Sydney.” Of Zimbabwean heritage, Ngwenya’s full name is Ruvarashe, meaning God’s flower in Shona; the official language of Zimbabwe. She grew up among a close-knit family in Melbourne, surrounded by song and dance. During her childhood, Ngwenya remembers MTV humming away in the background at home. The first time she heard a Turner song, What’s Love Got To Do With It, she was watching the program with her mum, aunties and cousins. An aunty piped up “is she black?”. “She had on the blonde, big hair and she was just so … she looked really different. We were like, ‘yeah she’s black, and this is a really great song’. That song was then on repeat, it was one of my favourites,” Ngwenya recalls. Despite her ingrained talent, she didn’t grow up wanting to be a performer. Throughout school she preferred sport to singing, and found netball far more appealing. There is a scene in the musical, where Turner is goofing around with her sister at Club Manhattan before being pulled onto the stage to sing, that resonates with Ngwenya’s own path to performing. “She just has this gift, but she doesn’t understand how powerful and amazing she is,” Ngwenya says. “Or the gravitas of what she can do with her voice, she doesn’t realise because she’s just having fun, and then she ends up singing in this band. And then they go on tour, and she’s really into it. “She finds her own voice, and the journey to get there, I really relate to that.” Ngwenya initially considered her ability to sing a party trick. She could casually belt out a Beyonce or Whitney Houston hit to an admiring audience on request, but the thought of doing it in front of a crowd didn’t cross her mind. That was until she was, somewhat gently, forced by her drama teacher to perform in her year ten high school musical. At age 15, in her mum’s leather skirt and a spiky wig, she sang River Deep — Mountain High to her biggest audience yet. In this moment, like Turner, she says she felt wild and free. It ignited something inside of her, a fire that still burns now. Ngwenya then attended the Victorian College of the Arts, before performing in jazz bars across Melbourne in a band. In 2013 she landed the role of Shenzi, a dim-witted hyena in The Lion King. Her career in musical theatre has gone from strength to strength, with a serendipitous return back to Turner, where it all began. It’s not just Ngwenya’s life that Turner has touched. While Turner’s story and music has left a mark on history and memories across the world, Australians in particular have a soft spot for the star. The musical doesn’t go into Turner’s role as the fabulous villain Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, but Ngwenya does perform its hit We Don’t Need Another Hero. Nor does it touch on her connection to NRL, though Simply the Best will forever be linked to the sport. The cast of the musical are set to headline this year’s NRL grand final pre-show entertainment with a musical tribute, 30 years after Turner performed with Jimmy Barnes at its 1993 final. Thankfully for the eyes of the audience, the musical also doesn’t showcase Australian’s penchant to perform the Nutbush at wedding receptions. Turner felt this connection too, revealing in the past that Australia holds a special place in her heart. What the musical does shine a spotlight on is Turner’s Buddhist faith, a big part of the icon’s life that she detailed over the years. Its teachings and practices, she’s explained, saved her life after attempting suicide. While recovering in hospital Turner began studying its principles, and had been learning and chanting ever since. “I found that really interesting (Turner’s connection with Buddhism). I’ve always been interested in spirituality and questioning my reality and why things are the way they are, what role does religion play in creating systems and the social structures that we adhere to,” Ngwenya says. “As a black woman in the south, it’s just very unique and culturally not what was going on … It might be more diverse now, but back then it was pretty iconic. “I think that’s my favourite thing about her actually.” Despite its challenging themes, and the reminder that such a special person is no longer with us, the musical is equal parts a celebration of one of the world’s greatest performers, and the impressive legacy she’s left. “For me, I hope that people come to the show and it gives them some tools to deal with their own issues they’re going through in their own life, and offer inspiration and motivation,” says Ngwenya. “I hope it’s inspiring for people, particularly women and women’s stories.” Tina - The Tina Turner Musical will be playing at Crown Theatre from February 27, tickets on sale now, details at tinathemusical.com.au Lifeline: 13 11 14