Tribute to Tina Turner--Starring Cookie Watkins

Featured finalist on ABC's "The Next Best Thing--Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator?"
backed by a dynamite live band and backup singers/dancers

The #1 Tina Turner Tribute in the World!

September 29-30

Saturday at 8pm and Sun at 2pm

Preferred Seating: $37.50;

Reserved Seats; $27.50;

Seniors, Groups of 10 or more and Balcony Seating, $22.50

(prices include $1.50 restoration fee)

With a little push at age 14 from none other than Duke Ellington, Watkins set off on a career path that would lead her to the off-Broadway stage, an in demand session singer, and a recording artist in her own right—before finding her calling as “The World’s Number One Tina Turner Tribute Artist.”

“I was always described as the little girl with the big woman’s voice," Watkins recalls. Her big brother had been a singer for nine years with Ellington’s band, and one night, the Duke heard Watkins singing along in the dressing room and persuaded her to perform on stage. (He mentioned her in his book, Music Is My Mistress and gave her a coming-out party at New York City’s Rainbow Room on her 18th birthday.)

Watkins studied opera at Temple University and the Manhattan School of Music but turned to popular music when she realized how long it would take to reach her peak in opera. Cookie’s vocal style—heavily influenced by such R&B legends as Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin and, of course, Tina Turner—landed her in the original cast of “Beehive” which had a lengthy run in the 1980s at the “Top of the Gate” in New York’s Greenwich Village (where she “repeatedly [raised] the roof, “ according to a New York Times profile at the time.)

In 1991, Watkins released “I’m Attracted To You,” a 12” dance single on Island/Smash Records heard locally on KISS-108. After years of playing clubs with her own band and recording or performing with such diverse acts as the J. Geils Band, Debbie Harry, Kitaro, Nona Hendryx, and Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Watkins ultimately landed herself a regular spot as part of the rotating cast of the long-running feature show, “Legends In Concert,” at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas.

To see and hear an excerpt of this amazing show, click here: http://tinaturnertributeshow.com/

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