With everyone from Tina Turner to Frank Sinatra getting the jukebox musical biopic treatment as of late, it’s no surprise that “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan wanted to get in on the action. But what is a surprise, sadly, is how her magnetic star power and iconic discography has been boiled down to such a muddled, lacklustre production as this.
After teasing us with a few bars of the title track, the show starts by transporting us to a rehab session for Chaka (Alexandra Burke), attended by her loved ones. Before long, we’re sent back on a whistle-stop of her life and traumas, including her relationship with her heroin-loving father, her Yoruba naming ceremony, her affiliation with Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers, her two failed marriages, and her spiral into drug addiction. The problem is, these events all happen so quickly, with such little context or world building happening around them, that it feels as though we’re partaking in a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of her formative experiences. Things seem to simply happen to Chaka, having little to no effect on her character development – it’s almost as if her personality is a slate that gets wiped clean at the start of every scene.
I must stress that this is no fault of Burke’s, who does her best to breathe life into the character, and truly shines when she can deploy her incredible vocal prowess in the musical numbers. The fault is entirely down to writer Nia T. Hill, whose script is filled with clunky conversations, empty platitudes, and a severe case of telling, rather than showing. In an Act Two scene, for instance, we see Chaka and her sisters discussing the challenges she’s faced as a Black woman in the music industry. This is, of course, an important conversation to be having – it’s just a pity we don’t see any of it. By ‘I’m Every Woman’s account, Chaka was blessed with a musical gift from a young age, stumbled into singing with Rufus, and then immediately became a superstar who spent her time hanging out with best friend Joni Mitchell (Sophie Earl).
That’s another thing. This show would have been better off subtitled as ‘The Chaka Khan & Friends Musical’ given how quickly it becomes a game of spot-the-musical-icon. Not that it’s difficult, of course, with these characters being frequently introduced by their full names (“Joni Mitchell, how you doing?”; “Stevie, Stevie Wonder!”). While Earl’s turn as Joni has some depth – as well as a tender, if somewhat random, performance of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ – many of the other A-list cameos are borderline offensive, with Miles Davis and Prince being the most egregious caricatures.
Where the script flounders, you’d hope that the musical numbers would at least offer some respite, but that was only half the case. Crowd-pleasing anthems like ‘Tell Me Something Good’ and ‘I Feel For You’ bring some much needed energy to proceedings, with Burke’s voice soaring amongst Ebony Clarke’s perky choreography. These big musical moments show off Sara Perks’s set design at its best too, creating a throwback MTV feel. Most other numbers have considerably less impact. While I respected the creative choice to turn ‘Ain’t Nobody’ into a duet, with the first half sung as a stripped-back, RnB infused ode by Chaka’s second husband Richie (a honey-voiced Miles Anthony Daley), it did feel like a bit of a let down to have such a highly anticipated number sang primarily at a funfair, ending with a ferris wheel appearance that wouldn’t have felt out of place in Grease.
Given that it’s the titular song, I’d also assumed that ‘I’m Every Woman’ would be a showstopping number near the end of the show, if not the finale. How wrong I was! With the exception of its brief appearance at the start of Act One and an inclusion in the obligatory curtain call megamix, ‘I’m Every Woman’ is not actually sung by Burke in this show. Instead, it’s sung by a bizarre, omnipresent character called Marie Stevens (played with amusing mania by Chrissie Bhima) in a pretty absurd, almost supernatural twist at the end of Act Two. Accompanied by some very heavy handed use of video and CGI, this was a baffling moment that acts as a total disservice to such a brilliant song.
Speaking of baffling, the severely underexplored relationship between Chaka and her daughter Milini (Charlotte St. Croix) reaches a climax when Milini tells Chaka she wants to perform an original song for her to express her feelings. As she started to sing ‘Beautiful’, I thought to myself: ‘Wow, I never knew this Christina Aguilera song was a cover of Chaka Khan!’ A quick Google post-show revealed that I wasn’t, in fact, lacking a crucial nugget of pop culture knowledge: ‘Beautiful’ has absolutely no relation to the world of Chaka Khan. So why on Earth was it included?
Director Racky Plews continues the trend of strange choices in this production. Within the characterisation of Chaka’s two ex-husbands, there’s no space for emotional nuance from the actors. Instead, they go from being doting lovers in one scene, to completely abusive monsters in the next. There’s also a peculiar moment after Richie and Chaka get married where Burke and Daley are swapped out for two dancers who perform the first years of their marriage via interpretative dance. While Clarke’s choreography is impressive, it’s a jarring tonal shift that makes no sense within the context of this production.
Despite speed running through so many milestones of Chaka’s life, ‘I’m Every Woman’ is also somehow nearly three hours long – and it didn’t help that the press night performance started 40 minutes late as we waited for Khan and her entourage to take their seats. For such a long show, I came away feeling like I really didn’t learn anything about who Chaka is as a person. I learnt about things that happened to her, but the show never dives beneath the glossy surface to reveal anything of genuine substance. With Khan herself heavily involved in the creation of this show, I couldn’t help but think her inability to look at the content through an objective lens constrained the potential of Hill’s script. It’s a shame, because Alexandra Burke’s voice has a lot of soul, but sadly the rest of the production is completely devoid of any.
I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical plays at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre until 27th September. Tickets are available at: https://www.troubadourtheatres.com/wembley-park-theatre
Reviewer: Olivia Cox
Reviewed: 4th August 2026
North West End UK Rating: