Six review:
Six the musical was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It stars the six wives of King Henry VIII. They have a competition to see which of the wives had it worst from Henry, each of them sings a song about their story, constantly mentioning ‘divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived’. We went to see the touring cast in Kingston at the Rose Theatre. This musical was basically all singing but each song told a story which put the musical together. The director probably made it like this on purpose so its different to other musicals. They could’ve done it in a historical way like any other show but its unique because they get the audience involved and at the end you’re allowed to film it when in other shows you’re not, its a pop concert style musical. It is also unique because Marlow and Moss wrote this whilst they were at Cambridge University, and became a hit at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a big musical theatre company came to watch it and from there they got offered a contract at the West End but had to agree to re cast, meaning they couldn’t take their friends. Marlow and Moss also wrote another project called Hot Gay Time machine which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe, they also won LGBTQ+ Award at the Brighton Fringe in 2018. As far as we know, they say they have a lot more exciting projects in the pipelines but are not even close to discussion yet!!
Their co-directors are Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage. The cast in this are obviously the six wives: Catherine of Aragon played by Lauren Drew, Katherine Howard played by Jodie Steele, Catherine Parr played by Athena Collins, Anne Boleyn played by Maddison Bullyment, Jane Seymour played by Lauren Bryne and Anna of Cleeves played by Shekina Mcfarlane. The costumes in this musical were also very unique and nothing I’ve seen before, they were over the top and glam and were all very specific and different making all their characters distinct. This musical is new and we saw the UK tour but has also been going on in London, Chicago, Australia, Edmonton and Minnesota.
This production is very successful and lot of people cover the songs in musical theatre because they’re so different and catchy. The lighting and sound in this was amazing, it was all live music played by the ladies in waiting, which is also different because a lot of musicals have the band playing underneath the stage, they also got the musicians involved and got us to appreciate them and not very show does this as well as they did. The singing was great and they were all really loud and clear and the harmonies were so good and was effective when every time they said the word ‘six’ they’d harmonise. As this is a modern pop style the costumes fitted in very well and is appealing to younger people s it makes it different rather than them being in Tudor outfits. They all constantly used their faces really well and engaged with us but the only thing I would say is that when Katherine Howard was singing her song they could’ve made it a little more serious instead of making a joke out of it as she is talking about sexual harassment which is a serious matter but because the song was performed in such a lively way it made it more difficult to understand what exactly she was talking about.
This show is definitely worth seeing if you want to see something different to an average musical, at first I thought it was going to be boring as it didn’t appeal to me at all but now I’ve gone to see it I’m really glad as its 100% worth it. Its really funny and like a concert, getting you involved so if you like stuff like that then you should definitely go and see it, also none of the songs are boring or drag on, you can clearly hear what they’re saying and they’re so funny and interesting, also the energy Is kept up all the way the through and never lacks, making it fun and exciting!
winter fest coursework year 1 