“Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” might just be a rhyme that you barely remember from your history GCSEs, but to the queens of SIX The Musical it means a whole lot more and they’re not afraid to bring you along for the royal ride.
As we settled into our seats at the Grand Opera House I didn’t really know a lot about the show itself, except for the fact that we were going to have a bit of a history lesson on Henry VIII. Well you can forget all about history because this is an all-female her-story class about the badass women in his life instead. These six are strong independent women, and they’ve come to realise that they don’t need no man – no matter his status.
With a stripped back (yet still bedazzled) stage and an all-female band playing live (Laura Browne on guitar, Ashley Young on the bass, Migdalia Van Der Hoven on the drums), SIX quite rightly lets the queens do the talking – or rather – singing for themselves. Each queen gets to sing her own song, in her own style, to tell her own story, as they compete for the title of “most put upon” in a sort of reality show style format. With bags of attitude and fierceness in spades, each and every song is a blinder, and although it starts off as a ‘competition’ between the queens, it really is impossible to pick a favourite.
Chlöe Hart’s Catherine of Aragon, Jennifer Caldwell’s Anne Boleyn, Casy Al-Shaqsy’s Jane Seymour, Jessica Niles’ Anna of Cleves, Rebecca Wickes’ Katherine Howard and Alana M Robinson’s Catherine Parr are all pitch perfect, delivering every line with just the right hint of a British accent and injecting their own personalities into their roles too. Jennifer Caldwell’s Anne Boleyn has the cheekiness of a Spice Girl in Don’t Lose Ur Head, while Jessica Niles’ Anna of Cleves revs up the attitude with a feisty performance of Get Down.
Writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have done a fabulous job of bringing history up to date and not just with chart-worthy songs and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s killer choreography but with the show’s empowering message and fun feminist overtones too. The body positivity on stage, the camaraderie amongst the queens and sheer amount of energy exerted make for a stellar show that I didn’t want to end before it was even over.
An absolute joy from the very first note until the last, SIX The Musical takes stuffy school history lessons and catapults the story of Henry VIII’s six wives into a modern day musical spectacular. We may have gotten stuck in Joe Biden’s traffic jam on the way home, but with the SIX soundtrack streaming in the car as soon as we left the theatre we didn’t lose our heads over it.
The current run at Grand Opera House ending on 15th April is completely sold out, but no doubt it will be back. If herstory has taught us anything, it’s that SIX The Musical‘s reign is far from over.
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