Fleur East is simply the best in 'Tina — The Tina Turner Musical'

As the smash-hit musical Tina prepares to leave the West End, we spoke to its newest — and final — amazing star, Fleur East.

During the 2014 X Factor final, Fleur East showcased a rendition of Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” so barnstorming that Simon Cowell called it the greatest performance he’d ever witnessed. Eleven years on, Fleur is bringing the house down again, playing the titular icon in Tina - The Tina Turner Musical – a role she’s sharing with Karis Anderson.

East tells London Theatre Magazine that although her initial thought was: “there’s no way on this planet that I’m going to sing those songs!”, she immediately felt a deep connection with Tina’s “tenacity, her work ethic, her positivity and ability to bounce back after getting rejected by the industry”. Once she had delivered her powerful version of “River Deep, Mountain High” to Musical Supervisor Nicholas Skilbeck – who was excited by the rasp in her voice – Fleur set to work...

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Were you already a Tina Turner fan before being cast?
Yeah, she’s one of my top performers of all time. My dad would always put on live performances of artists and we would just watch them over the weekend, and Tina was one of those. And my mum is obsessed with Tina, so getting to sing and perform as her is honestly a dream come true.

Which aspect was more daunting – the singing or the acting?
Everything! Being in the music industry and facing a lot of rejection, you have a lot of self-doubt. There’s psychological trauma that goes along with that, so I think for years I kind of talked myself out of things. Then suddenly I’m taking on Tina Turner whose range is just out of this world! I knew it would push me, but at the same time I liked that it scared me.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered when you researched Tina?
I think just her positivity, because even when she was asked about [ex-husband] Ike a lot of the time, she was very matter-of-fact, saying “I made a promise and felt I had to honour that promise, and then there came a time I felt I just couldn’t do it anymore.” Her attitude was always that you keep moving and I like to think I’m like that as well.

Tina’s is an intense story – how do you manage to switch off at the end of the night after such an emotional rollercoaster?
It’s very difficult. I remember in rehearsals, we were doing the hospital scene with Tina’s mum for the first time in front of the company and I broke down and started sobbing on the hospital bed. In that moment, I guess I tapped into the moment I lost my father and so it brought all of that back. Afterwards, Kat Hare – the Associate Director – said “I’m glad you’ve tapped into that emotion now because when you get up on stage, you’ll know what that feels like and be able to control where you go withit.” I’ve now learned how to harness it more so that I’m a vehicle to tell Tina’s story in the right way, rather than dragging my own emotions into it.

What did you learn from your X Factor experience?
I’d been in the industry for years leading up to that, but I guess I learned more about the marketing side and how the numbers work, because it was like an intensive crash course in all of that over the course of just a few months. Then you get rolled out and boom – you’re releasing music, it’s so quick. I’m grateful that it happened at that time in my life – at the age of 26 when I already had experience and my eyes were wide open. It also taught me to take risks very early on.

Has this experience made you want to do more musicals?
Yeah, it’s made me want to do more musicals, more acting, more theatre actually – I’ve just LOVED it! I did A-level Drama and have done bit parts on TV, but this has been like going back to school. I’ve learned about “action-ing” and putting a feeling behind every sentence, and having a colour of emotion in a monologue. I remember the sheer thrill of getting my highlighters and actioning book — I've become such a geek!

Book Tina — The Tina Turner Musical tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Fleur East in Tina — The Tina Turner Musical. (Photos by Matt Crockett)