Six The Musical is a modern re-telling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII – but told in the form of a pop concert – the wives taking turns singing and telling their story to see who suffered the most.
The production was actually first presented by Cambridge University students – Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss – at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, and has since gone on to productions in the West End, Broadway and internationally.
The pair wrote the musical during their last year at university, researching the wives of the monarch extensively, as well as using real-life pop stars as inspiration for the six titular characters.
Since then, it’s won multiple awards, and launched a successful studio album – remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power.
Hearing the stories of each of the wives, as they compete with each other to see who’s had the worst experience with Henry, and thus should be the group’s lead singer.
It pulls together themes of female beauty, emotional trauma, abuse, independence and more, even bringing in the idea of catfishing (500 years before Tinder), and responds to the lack of gender diversity within the theatre industry – with a predominantly female or non-binary cast.
This week sees Six arrive at Salford’s Lowry Theatre for an extended run until Sunday 9th January 2022.
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