SIX the Musical

Divorced... Beheaded... Died... 

Divorced... Beheaded... Survived

per Wikipedia

SIX is a British musical comedy in the style of a pop concert, with music, book, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a singing competition. In the show, the wives take turns telling their story to determine who suffered the most from their shared husband, but ultimately seek to reclaim their individual identities and rewrite their stories.

Frank and I went to a 2:00 pm matinee of SIX the Musical on Saturday, April 26th. We were fortunate to have seats reasonably close, in Row 12, and offset to the right; this was our view of the stage.

per Wikipedia

In developing the characters, Marlow and Moss were inspired by several real-life pop stars who were used as a composite and musical inspiration for the characters. The six ex-wives and their corresponding pop star inspirations are:

• Catherine of Aragon: modelled on Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson
• Anne Boleyn: modelled on Avril Lavigne and Lily Allen
• Jane Seymour: modelled on Adele, Sia, and Celine Dion.
• Anna of Cleves: modelled on Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.
• Katherine Howard: modelled on Britney Spears and Ariana Grande.
• Catherine Parr: modelled on Alicia Keys and Emeli Sandé.

Of the thirteen pop stars mentioned, I know of five, and Frank even fewer. Three of our four  granddaughter have seen this musical, loved it, and probably understood the singer references. But even though the parody went over our heads, at least Frank and I enjoyed the rousing beat and flashy costumes, in addition to the powerful voices and enthusiasm of the singers. We could not understand the lyrics — no problem whatsoever with the volume, but we had difficulty with the enunciation of the words  — we got the gist of the stories anyway. After the  show we visited this website for lyrics and read to learn the subtlety and cleverness of what we had missed in real time.

I also thought the Playbill handout was very useful.  I am not very well versed in history, especially English royalty, and so the  two-page section in the center of the Playbill summarizing the six wives was very useful and instructional. I repeated both pages here.

DIVORCED

BEHEADED

DIED           

DIVORCED

BEHEADED

SURVIVED

After the show a helpful fellow theatre-goer took pity on our distorted posturing to take a selfie and so she helped us out. Frank and I will reach out 50th wedding anniversary this September. So, like Catherine Parr, we survived. And Frank managed to do it with only one wife!