The typical biography you read in a playbill is a somewhat boring list of an actor’s previous credits. Not so the one for Deon Releford-Lee, who plays Ike Turner in the national tour of “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” that rolls into town next week.
His bio reads, in part, “Food Maker, Rump Shaker and Generational Curse Breaker.” The first two are easy to make educated guesses about. The third …?
“I’m a big believer in healing trauma,” Releford-Lee says from a tour stop in West Palm Beach. “I’m really passionate about doing something with the frustration I have in being a young millennial in the world today. So being a generational curse breaker is about redirecting where a generation is going.”
He says his work in “Tina” dovetails nicely with that passion.
“I think going back generations to look at how Black men in America were treated and what brought them to exhibit the behaviors they have is part of the work I’m doing,” Releford-Lee says. “Breaking generational curses involves building understanding and not excusing behaviors but maybe explaining them and lending them a little bit of humanity.”
As would be expected, “Tina” spends much of the first act depicting Tina Turner’s early years growing up in Nutbush, Tennessee, as Anna Mae Bullock, before going to St. Louis where she was discovered by Ike. As their relationship got more intimate, Ike got more violent. Just as their music careers were reaching new heights, Ike’s abuse drove Tina to leave, a broken woman already dismissed as over-the-hill.
Releford-Lee says it’s important for him not to flatten Ike into a simple villain through his portrayal. “If he is just a caricature of a human, it’s a disservice to the story and really, a disservice to Tina,” he says.
“Their relationship is integral to her life and shying away from the hard stuff he did would take away from what she had to overcome and from telling her authentic story.”
Growing up in a military family, Releford-Lee moved around alot, living in Philadelphia and Kansas before landing in North Carolina. He says he wanted to be a cryptozoologist but found out after enrolling in HBCU Fayetteville State that it wasn’t an actual major.
After graduating in 2014, he worked as a teaching artist and choreographer in regional theater before moving to New York in 2018. His long relationship with “Tina” started during the production’s final months on Broadway.
“It was just after COVID and they were looking for extra coverage,” Releford-Lee remembers. “I made my Broadway debut in January, 2022: I was in the ensemble and covered for other roles. I was an understudy for Ike but only went on once in that role before the show closed in August.”
The “Tina” national tour kicked off in September of 2022 without Releford-Lee but the tour’s management reached out to him last summer to get him back on board. Between his work in the ensemble, as a swing and as an understudy, he’s played every Black male role in the production.
“I’ve never had such a long relationship with a show and never played every character in a show I possibly could,” he says. When it’s suggested that his experience makes him particularly well situated to appear in future “Tina” productions he laughs, “Absolutely! I’ll go to London, please call me!”
Appearing in “Tina” has a specific resonance for Releford-Lee because of the influence Turner’s story had on him growing up. “The movie ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ with Angela Bassett was constantly on replay in my household, along with movies about ‘The Temptations’ and ‘The Jackson 5.’ Those influences were really big in my life,” he says.
“So it’s full circle for me to now have such a strong relationship with the show.”
Broadway in Richmond’s “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” plays April 2 to 7 at the Altria Theater, 6 N. Laurel St., 23220. For tickets and information, visit https://broadwayinrichmond.com/.
