TINA with Roz White

Shawn talks with Roz White from the cast of TINA - The Tina Turner Musical, coming to Madison's Overture Center this June.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Eight forty five, thirteen ten WibaOh Yeah. Coming to the Overture Center
June eleventh through the twenty sixth TinaThe Tina Turner Musical Broadway Overture is always
just great, great shows, amazingtalent. We're talking top level talent at

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the Overture Center. And joining usthis morning is Roz White, speaking of
amazing talent, who plays Zelma Bullock, who is Tina Turner's mom. Roz,
thank you so much for joining usthis morning. I'm pretty excited to
have you on with us. How'sthe show going? I know you're obviously
you're traveling around the country. How'sthe show been going so far? The

(00:43):
show is amazing. We still havinga great time in all of these cities.
The people absolutely love the show.And you know, we're a tight,
tight group now because we've been outalmost two years, so we rolled
it right along. Yeah, thatis amazing. I'm going to ask you
about about the Tina Turner music,well, but I want to ask a
little bit about and let folks kindof get to know you a little bit.

(01:03):
You are and for people that theymay recognize your name or or folks
that follow Broadway, you are youare quite the quite the performer. How
does this show rate with some ofthe other other shows that you've had a
chance to perform in. Well,this show is huge. I mean it's
it's about an icon. And I'vespent a lot of my career doing smaller

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shows with four or five, maybeeight tast members at the most, and
I do a lot of one womanshows as well. So this is a
big show and it's twenty six peopleon stage every night, and so we
are a family. This this experience. For me, the backstage is more
of what I'm really learning so muchabout myself. I'm a teaching artist and

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so I work with kids all thetime. We've got kids in the cast.
Everybody in the cast is younger thanme, so be an example.
But I also get to learn andsee myself repeated all of these really talented
people. So for me, theshow on stage is huge and it's you
know, the story that we're tellingis important because we need to free people
from abuse, but also we needto let people know that they can achieve

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whatever they put their minds to aslong as they focus and have good people
around them. And when Tina gotthe white people around her, that's when
we started to see started really tosee her career take off. So this
show for me is just life mirrormirroring itself. Why would I try to
use the word like mirroring. It'sa good word for sure. Talking this

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morning with Roz White, she iswith the Tina the Tina Turner Musical that's
going to be coming to the OvertureCenter just about a month from now.
Tickets are available overture dot org.That's overture dot org. It's going to
run Tuesday the eleventh, June elevenththrough the weekend the sixteenth. Again.
Details up at overture dot org.Robs Whatside, what brought you to to
becoming an actress? What what madeyou say? You know what I want

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to I want to perform like this. I want to be on that big
stage. It's a little bit aboutyour background. Well, I was born
and raised in Washington, DC.And Washington, d C is the home
of the area called well we havean area where indigenous people live. And
so about four years old, mystepdad took me to a show where there
was dancing and singing and I saidI want to do that, and he

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thought I wanted to get up onthe stage, you know, and just
participate right then. But I waslike no, no, no, no
no, I wanted to do that. So about four years old I discovered
my love for music and my lovefor being on stage. And I started
very very early and Christmas pageants inpreschool, then with the glee club and
then Performing Arts Ensemble, went toPerforming Arts High School, got my Musical

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theater degree at Howard. I've beenin this business for forty years this year.
You start when you were in veryyoung, as you mentioned, and
with that too, I think sometimespeople wonder what is your life like like
day to day for you? Obviouslyexciting with the shows, but to also
probably very exciting getting to getting tospend a week or so in different cities

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and kind of seeing the country.What's what's the day like for you?
Well, when I'm out on theroad, And this is the great the
question, because when I'm out onthe road with the tour, I like
to get up early ish and goto the gym first. First things first,
get my body together, and thenI like to, you know,
go out and discover what the cityhas to offer. I'm a nature person,

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so the botanical gardens is a placethat I'm always going to try to
find, and even in the desert, I found botanical gardens with these cactals.
It was great. I love trees. And so because my character says
a lot of mean things and andvan to kids and and had to fight
physically in the first part, thefirst thing you see them will do is
fight her husband. So I needto do things that are the opposite of

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what I'm doing on stage. SoI'm around nature. I'm doing peaceful things,
going to museums. I actually willgo to a restaurant and sit alone
as people will come up and say, aren't you Ugentina or you know that
kind of thing, And it's greatthan see that people recognize the art that's
coming into town. So that's myday right now. I'm actually on vacation
and I just did a concert lastnight, so my day can go from

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calm to crazy and zero point two. Yeah, you've got a love it
and you've got You've got some kiddosas well, so I'm guessing that you're
very good handling anything that comes yourway. Right, Absolutely, that's not
the growth. But I had lotsof training when they were growing up.
Oh, it is fantastic. Talkingthis morning with Rob's right white, she

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is portraying Zelma. But look who'sTina Turner's mother. Of course, we've
got Tina the Tina Turner Musical comingto the Overture again. That's going to
run the eleventh, June eleven throughthe sixteenth. Tickets and more information available
at overture dot org. That's overturedot org. Let's talk about your portrayal
of Zelma. And you mentioned thisis not a this is not a low

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energy role, and you're clearly nota low energy prayers a very fiery role.
What's that like kind of stepping intoa different persona than me, maybe
the type of person that you are. What's that like like for you?
Riz? It was it's been healingfor me. I lost my mom right
before I got this job, andso I feel like this was her gift

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to me to say that you cango to the next level. And my
mom has been my biggest cheerleader mywhole life. You know, she always
wanted me to, you know,be a star, and you know when
moms wants you to be a star. But she wasn't a stage mom.
So but and so Zelma is themother of the Queen of Rock, but
she didn't know it. And thisis what I try to bring to the

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character. She's human. She didn'tknow that she had a star. She
had a little kid that was rambunctiousand like to run around and jump,
and she was a tomboy, andshe wanted her just to sit still and
my and pay attention and listen toher mother. And it was a hard
time for Zelma. Were talking aboutnineteen thirty nine, picking cotton in rural

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Tennessee. She wasn't happy, andher husband thought that the best way to
get her in line was the puncherin the face. So I could play
a woman who people don't understand becauseshe's mean to the kid, But she's
meaning to the kid because he's gettingbeaten up and she's trapped in this world
that she knows there's something better forher, similar to what Tina felt inside.
But just imagine Thelma's stardom was movingaway from that rural area and having

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her own home with nice things anda good job so she could take care
of her family. Tina's something morewas becoming an icon. It's just we
were given to our children. Wepour into our children what we can.
We do the best we can,and they're supposed to go further than us.
So for me, Thelma succeeded becauseeven though she was rough on Tina,

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she was very much favoritive of Ikebecause he was giving money and he
was providing stardom for her child andfor her life, her family. But
and sometimes parents get confused like thatand they take the side of the ex
because they were they were good toyou, they gave you money. But
she didn't understand everything that she wentthrough actually Tina was going through to the

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abuse, and so it's a verycomplex role. I have to to go
through. I have to age fortyyears by the end of the show,
and you know, watching someone taketheir last breath and you don't just to
get that closure is rough. Andso I have upmost respect for Tina Turner,
but I also have empathy for Delmabecause she's a mom that was just

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doing the best she could with hercircumstances. This sounds like it's going to
be an absolutely fantastic production. Cannotwait to see it again. We've got
We've got Roz White on the phone. She is part of Tina Turner's uh
that Tina the the get the exactare Tina that the the Tina Turner Musical
of course is going to be atthe overture. A lot of Tina's in
there and forgot and for good reason. And let's talk real quick about about

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the rest of the cast and andand the talent around you is is that's
gotta you mentioned uh working with someyounger folks as well as that's got to
be just absolutely great for you tosee these young talented people getting upon and
sharing the stage with them. It'sjust incredible. The curtain comes up on

(09:13):
the show and you just see legsand the crowd goes nuts. That's the
the first night that happened. Iwas like, this is something special.
Well way before that, let's goback to the rehearsal room when both of
our teenas, because we have two, got a chance to do their numbers
for us. We have literally tworehearsals a day. We had to rehearsal
with one Tina and then rehearsal withthe other teena. They alternate shows because

(09:35):
of the heaviness of the role,you need a day to recover. So
we'll have one Tina on Tuesday nightand we'll have a different Teina on Wednesday
night, and so it gets yourtops, you know, really strong to
play against these different actors. LikeI said, we have children in the
show. The young people are extremelytalented, so brilliant and bring such peace

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and love with praying backstage before theshow and the little girls come over and
they hands can we pray? It'sso precious. And then you know,
we have this great band that travelswith us. We get horns and a
guitar and percussion in each city,but we have five musicians that travel with
us and our conductor Danny, she's, oh my goodness, such a great

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spirit and she just has that bandsmoking every night. So the music is
hot, the performers are talented,the crowd is going nuts. It is
the ideal situation for any performer.If you don't love what you do,
then you shouldn't be doing this showbecause you can't help but feel the love
and the energy. People loved TinaTurner, and we sing twenty five of

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her songs in the show, andI mean, the crowd is just right
there with us telling We're telling thestory of her life and the crowd is
very appreciative. At the end,I get a lot of feedback that people
learn things they didn't know, whichis very important to me as a teacher,
and that they had an amazing time, and that they understood some of
the choices that people made in theirlives a little bit better. Not to

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excuse people abusing anyone, but thereis an understanding of what can happen when
you're not healed. Roz. I'mvery excited to get to see you,
Roz White. Of course, whois with the with the production of Tina,
the Tina Turner Musical. It's gonnabe at the Overture Center coming up
June eleventh through sixteenth. Tickets availableright now overture dot org. That's overture

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dot org. As more word isgetting out, I guarantee tickets are going
to sell it, so you're definitelygonna want to get it to the website
this morning overture dot org. Buyyour tickets. Roz. I love talking
with you. I am so excitedto get to see you perform and get
to see this performance. You havea fantastic day. And while you're here,
check out obric Beautiful Botanical Garden herein Madison and you'll absolutely love it.

(11:48):
So thank you for ticketing. Somuch for having me that, thank
you for having me. That's exciting. I can't wait to get to Madison.
Roz White with Tina Tina the TinaTurner Musical. Roz, thanks again
for your time. If you wantto see the show, we do have
a pair of tickets for opening night. We'll take to caller Roz. Roz
will take three caller number three thismorning at six oh eight three two one

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thirteen ten. That's six oh eightthree two one thirteen ten. We'll get
you a pair of tickets to Tinathe Tina Turner Musical. Again. You
can buy tickets and tickets and informationavailable at overture dot org. That's overture
dot org caller number three right nowsix oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
That's six oh eight three two onethirteen ten. More of Madison in

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the Morning is next here on thirteenten. Wiva