Australia’s Tina Turner revealed: Previously unknown star set to play music icon

A relative unknown has landed the gig of a lifetime, playing Tina Turner in the Aussie cast of the international hit stage musical. Here is all you need to know about the rising star set to play a music icon.

Ruvarashe Ngwenya will star as Tina Turner in the upcoming musical in May. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ruva Ngwenya has landed the gig of a lifetime – playing music icon Tina Turner.

The 30-year-old relative unknown will not however allow the enormity of what she is about to undertake derail her as she knuckles down in preparation for the Australian premiere of Tina — The Tina Turner Musical.

“I feel like I have a journey ahead because it is a true triple threat show,” Ngwenya told The Sunday Telegraph. “You really need the facility to tell that story. But I am ready for it, I am hungry for it. I need it.”

Ruvarashe Ngwenya pictured at the Theatre Royal. The rising star has just landed the gig of a lifetime. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ruva recently spent time in London with the international production team and the West End theatre troupe currently playing at the Piccadilly Theatre. It was, she said, “an early highlight in my Tina journey”.

Coming from playing La Chocolat in Moulin Rouge The Musical, Ruva is determined to work as hard as possible to get the role right. That means intensive singing, dancing and acting training. It is a hugely demanding role on every level.

“At this stage, I am in the phase of endurance and stamina so a lot of cardio, a lot of doing the steps and singing through them,” she said. “It is really just show fitness at the end of the day, you have to get your lungs working and you have to be overall strong because Tina on stage is not your typical soft feminine curtsy energy – it is strong, it is fierce, unapologetic and you take up space so you really need to be strong to have that presence on stage.”

The iconic, trailblazing Tina Turner performing at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan in August 1985. Picture: Ross Marino/Getty Images

Tina Turner at London’s Wembley Stadium during her Wildest Dreams Tour on 20th July 1996. Picture: Brian Rasic/Getty Images

Twelve-time Grammy Award winner Turner, 82, officially retired in 2009. She is one of the most successful female artists of all time and has sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer ever. Her massive global hits include What’s Love Got To Do With It, Private Dancer, Better Be Good To Me, and What You Get Is What You See.

Together with late husband, Ike Turner, she had hits with River Deep – Mountain High, Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits.

Behind the superstar success, Turner suffered physically and emotionally at the hands of her ex-husband.

“I had a lot of personal breakthroughs just going through the auditions doing some of those scenes,” Ngwenya explained. “Because it really requires you to face some of the demons inside yourself and your relationships, how you move through the world, how you see yourself, what you stand for, what you are going to tolerate; it demands you to address that in this show in the same way Tina did. And so I found myself crying in that audition room unable to sing Private Dancer because I had succumbed to my emotions of the story of what she went through at that point.”

30-year-old Ngwenya recently started in Moulin Rouge.

She’s been working out her lungs to capture Turner’s “fierce” energy.

The stage musical was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins and originally had its world premiere in London in April 2018. The Broadway production opened just under a year later.

Ngwenya now has a packed schedule of singing, dancing and acting sessions in the lead-up to opening. It is a hugely demanding role that will require Ngwenya on stage for the majority of the show.

“It is like you are at the edge of the cliff and you have just got to jump, that is what it feels like,” Ngwenya said. “I have been in my comfort zone. Happiness, gratitude, excitement, fear, hunger, I just feel like this is my chance to show Australia, and the world, what I’ve got and you don’t get many chances to do that so I don’t take it lightly. It is strong, it is fierce, unapologetic and you take up space so you really need to be strong to have that presence on stage.”

Ruva Ngwenya has shared her rise to glory and fashion in a Stellar magazine shoot.

Tina Turner in action at Festival Hall, Melbourne.

Quoting Turner herself, Ngwenya said there were no shortcuts to hard work.

“I respect that so it is not about trying to look the part, I just have to do the work and then the part will inherently be there,” she explained. “I will kill it but I have to do the work. I feel like I have a journey ahead because it is a true triple threat show. You really need the facility to tell that story. But I am ready for it, I am hungry for it. I need it.”

Tina — The Tina Turner Musical opens at Theatre Royal Sydney in May. (tinaturnerthemusical.com.au).