Emi struts her stuff

SOUL SISTER, Lowry, Salford, to Saturday
THE soul sister in this case is none other than Tina Turner — and from when she really was — not the pop superstar years of the Eighties onwards but of the R ’n’ B days with husband Ike.

This is another of producer Bill Kenwright’s “jukebox” shows — a biographical concert-musical — which are usually fairly dull affairs until the second half, when the story is put to one side and the evening becomes a jukebox of greatest hits.

This time it’s pretty much the same, except Kenwright has gone high-tech for the sets, and his leading lady is a star in the making — both of which take this out of the jukebox mainstream.

In past times the backdrops and settings have been solidly decorative — blow-ups of record labels. posters and so on. Here instead we get a bare stage with a wide screen, on to which is projected a series of comic book-style backdrops, mostly drawn, some photographic, some even video.

There are captions and banners and it’s a great idea that serves two purposes: it takes on the job of some of the tedious exposition in the dialogue; and when the show gets dull, there’s still plenty to look at.

Commanding attention is Emi Wokoma, who frankly doesn’t look or sound much like Turner — her face is more chiselled, her voice has less depth — but who dominates the stage in the same way, even down to Turner’s awkward little strut-dance, and has the audience on its feet Ike the real thing.

She belts out “River Deep Mountain High”, “Proud Mary”, “Addicted to Love” and especially “The Best” as the concert reaches its climax, her trademark Turner wig bouncing around like it has a life of its own.

Wokoma has good chemistry with the Ike of Chris Tummings — until he gets nasty, of course, and the band is particularly good, as are the Ikettes backing group.

The show itself, when no one is singing, moves a little better than previous shows, but could be shorter — though I don’t expect Turner fans will agree with me: at 10.20pm they still wanted more.