British Musicals: ‘Six’ (2017)

British Musicals: ‘Six’ (2017)

Book, Lyrics & Music by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

History

‘Six’ is a musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who met in the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society (CUMTS). The society weary of annually haemorrhaging money at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on the rights of real musicals by real writers, decided to write their own based on the idea of ‘the six wives of Henry VIII, but like a pop group’. The show opened on the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe to rave reviews, then a short tour, where at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, it was seen by composer, George Stiles (co-writer of many of my favourite British Musicals, including ‘Betty Blue Eyes’, ‘The Wind in the Willows’, ‘Honk’ and ‘Soho Cinders’) who became one of the show’s producers, helping them stave off suggestions including adding Henry to the mix, adding more songs to make 90 minutes rather than 75 minutes, and even adding a complete second half. Stiles commented ‘It doesn’t want to expand. It’s for the Netflix generation’. With supporters on board, the show undertook a handful of sold-out workshop performances at the Arts Theatre in London over Christmas 2017, then an opening week at the Norwich Playhouse, a further (sold out) run at the Edinburgh Fringe, before returning to the Arts Theatre for a short run, then going on tour from November to December 2018, taking in Kingston, Southampton, Salford, and Glasgow. It is then scheduled to return to the Arts Theatre for a five month run in the New Year.

Story

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. 

All this time
They’ve been just one word in a stupid rhyme
So they picked up a pen and a microphone
History’s about to get overthrown. 

From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing five hundred years of ‘her-storical’ heartbreak into a 75-minute celebration of celebration of sisterly sass-itude and 21st century girl power. These Queens may have green sleeves but their lipstick is rebellious red.

In A Nutshell

‘Divorced, Beheaded, LIVE !!!’ – The Ultimate Queen concert.

Production

I caught the first night of the tour, from the front row of the Rose Theatre, Kingston, which was packed. The lights went down and the all female cast and band entered. Following a wonderful opening number which started as ‘Greensleeves’, then morphed into a riff on ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived’, the plot began – a competition between the wives as to who had the worst time, leading to six very different solo songs, with backing from the other five. Each wife had their own Queenspiration – Catherine of Aragon (Beyonce & Shakira), Anne Boleyn (Lily Allen & Avril Lavigne), Jane Seymour (Adele & Sia), Anna of Cleeves (Nicki Minaj & Rihanna), Katherine Howard (Ariana Grande & Britney Spears), and Catherine Parr (Alicia Keys & Emeli Sande) – meaning a good variety of pop styles, all with a live band. The ending with the wives all singing together about how they are more than just a rhyme was also amazing.

The cast – Jarneia Richard-Noel (Catherine I), Millie O’Connell (Anne), Natalie Paris (Jane), Alexia McIntosh (Anna), Aimie Atkinson (Katherine) and Maiya Quansah-Breed (Catherine II) - were all amazing, as were their costumes which were one-part fishnetted pop-star, one-part Tudor Queen. The songs were all very witty, and when it was announced at the end that an album was now available, there was a surge for the merchandise stand.

Given the similar idea, historical figures as a band, I found myself comparing it to ‘Wasted’ that I had seen a month before. However, ‘Six’ clearly emerged as the winner, thanks partly to its brevity – 10 songs compared to 27 – but also to the standard of the songs and staging, meaning that it at no point dragged, as ‘Wasted’ had in parts.

Highly, highly recommended. Book for the West End run next year as soon as you can.

Six runs at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 4th November 2018. It then tours to NST Southampton (13/11/18-17/11/18), The Lowry Salford Quays (04/12/18-16/12/18), and the SEC Glasgow (20/12/18-30/12/18), before re-opening at the Arts Theatre London on 16th January 2019, with performances until 5th May 2019.

Favourite Song

No contest – the Lily Allenesque ‘Don’t Lose UR Head’, sung by Anne Boleyn.

Did I Buy The Cast Recording ?

Yes, on download as soon as I got home.

Links

Production Website: https://www.sixthemusical.com/

You Tube: 'Six' - The Trailer

'Six' Playlists