Tina T'urner Tea Lady

Whatever happened to Tina Turner? Is the Queen of Rock'n'Roll living quietly in a lake house in Zurich? Hell no! Wikipedia's got it wrong, Turner ain't having no Foreign Affair, she's become a tea lady. Oh yeah! She's on a mission to tell the world that homebrew is Simply the Best. Down with those posh coffee shops and up with Rosie Lee!

That, and the elderly T'urner's insatiable, unshameable sexual appetite is pretty much the only joke in the debut Fringe show of cabaret artist Tina T'urner, the recent winner of the Best Newcomer award in the London Cabaret Awards 2014. There's nothing subtle or clever about it – no line is worth repeating, no joke bears recounting, but T'urner sings, dances, flashes and seduces with such frightening gusto that I haven't the heart to be too critical.

The ease and fluency with which T'urner interacts with the crowd is for me the most impressive aspect of her performance. She is silly, rude, good-humoured, even louder than she is lewd (which is saying something) – and the audience loves it. T'urner's rasping singing voice is mighty fine too. What a shame her tea-themed parodies of Turner songs don't have the words to match her voice.

You probably need at least a rudimentary familiarity with the big Turner hits really to enjoy the show, but other than that if you can take your tea strong, and your jokes weak, this is the cabaret for you.