I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical – Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre
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 i...