Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Chaka Khan has lived one hell of a life. A teenage Black Panther turned soul star, she worked with everyone from Whitney Houston to Joni Mitchell, shot at her second husband with a rifle, and battled alcohol and drug addiction throughout her life. Khan was born to spawn her own jukebox musical. She’s got the story, and she’s certainly got the hits. Unfortunately, I’m Every Woman, playing at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre after a limited run at the Hackney Empire, is not a worthy reflection of that life or those hits. It is a messy, overly long piece of theatre, its script a bizarre mix of stilted scenes and strange song choices that squanders lead Alexandra Burke’s talent and does little to convince us of Chaka’s very real star power. This chaotic middle is bookended by a far more sombre scene: a group therapy session between Chaka and her family, as they reckon with addiction and the distance it’s placed between the singer and her daughter Milini (Charlotte St Croix). We then flash back to Chaka’s childhood, the story barrelling at speed past her father’s heroin addiction, experiences of abuse, first loves. Everything in I’m Every Woman goes fast, fast, fast. The hits are cut short to squeeze in more songs, the scenes a jumbled mess of non-sequitors and exposition (‘Speaking of pain, how’s the new medication for your knee?’ follows one particularly emotional moment), designed to propel the story forward, always forward. The plot and timeline quickly become hard to...