Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s histore-mix look at Henry VIII’s wives has become a global phenomenon since its early days as a student production at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Earlier this year the show was regularly playing to sell-out houses in London’s West End, on tour across the UK and Australia. And it was about to make its Broadway debut when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, causing the show to be cancelled just three hours before curtain-up.

Now despite likely financial losses producers Kenny Wax, Wendy and Andy Barnes, and George Stiles are keen to bring the Queens back to life, opening productions in both London’s West End and on tour, coming to The Lowry, where it played to sell-out audiences last Christmas for another festive run.

“We accept that with social distancing it is unlikely to be economically viable,” says Wax. “We also understand that restarting productions, particularly musicals, remains impossible for most producers for reasons of scale, finance and lack of cancellation insurance. But we have the opportunity to give work to 100 or so actors, musicians, technicians, stage managers, production managers, costume makers, marketing, press, ticketing and office staff across the two productions. And we hope to entertain many thousands of theatre goers who have been starved of live entertainment since March.

“We are sure that opening SIX will help to build audience confidence and bring business back to the local economy. And we continue to look forward to the day when social distancing is removed and theatres can play to 100% capacity”.

The London production will temporarily move from its West End home at the Arts Theatre to The Lyric on Shaftesbury Avenue for a limited 11-week run beginning on 14 November through to 31 January 2021.
Meanwhile, the touring production starring Lauren Drew (Catherine of Aragon), Maddison Bulleyment (Anne Boleyn), Lauren Byrne (Jane Seymour), Shekinah McFarlane (Anna of Cleves), Jodie Steele (Katherine Howard) and Athena Collins (Catherine Parr), will restart at The Lowry on 27 November, playing 8-shows a week in the venue’s large Lyric Theatre. Capacity has been reduced from 1730 to approximately 740 seats inside the auditorium (depending on the booking number in each party) with one metre+ distancing between each group of seats.

Temperature checks will be taken for all audience members before entering the building. Government face covering policy at the time that the show opens will be followed. Hand sanitising stations will be available around the theatre. Theatre staff will undertake a thorough cleaning of the auditorium between shows.

Family favourite, The Gruffalo based on the children’s book by Julia Donaldson is also going ahead with socially distanced performances at The Lowry from 12 December 2020 – 10 January 2021.

SIX the Musical is at The Lyric Theatre at The Lowry from Friday 27 November 2020 – Saturday 10 January 2021

Read our review of Six on a previous run at The Lowry.

The post Six the Musical returns to The Lowry for Christmas appeared first on Quays Life.

The Tudor King is out of the picture – in Facebook-style he’s ‘unfriended’ them all. And his six Queens have taken the childhood mnemonic for which we know them best as their new anthem. Divorced, beheaded and died, divorced, beheaded, survived, becomes: Divorced, Beheaded, Live. Henry’s six ex-wives are back as a feisty girl-band, with plenty of drama to sing about how they were wronged by their royal man.

The staging is like a concert, with a wall of spotlights and a live all-female band – the Ladies in Waiting – providing musical backing to the singing Queens. Up front and ready to party the royals are dressed in outfits Lady Gaga could be proud of. A jumble of tight Tudor corsets, Alice in Wonderland surrealism and skimpy pop-icon sex-appeal, the costumes scream attitude and these wives have plenty of it.

‘Remember us from your GCSEs?’ We certainly do – but not like this.

The idea came, as many genius thoughts do, when writer, Jamie Armitage was doing something completely unrelated. During a poetry class at Cambridge University his mind wandered off and he wondered what it would be like if Henry VIII’s wives formed a girl band? From that spark he got together with history student, Lucy Moss and the pair of them decided to write a musical and take it to the Edinburgh Fringe.

There are clear influences from Hamilton to Horrible Histories, but remarkably it is unlike anything that’s gone before. If you remember seeing the Spice Girls first shoot to fame with Wannabe, watching Six gives a similar feeling – you’re not quite sure what you’re seeing, but it’s fresh, full of energy and makes you smile. It’s also playfully edgy in pushing today’s tight boundaries of political correctness.

After a scene-setting Ex-Wives, each of the Queens sings a solo, X-Factor style, battling it out for who had the most torrid time with Henry – ‘What’s more painful than heartache? A severed head’.

It’s an eclectic mix of musical styles, largely high-energy Euro-pop mashed with Hip Hop, and house music, soulful ballads and a bit of Calypso thrown in along with a souped-up Greensleeves and updated lute playing.

It’s a terrific ensemble piece. Jarneia Richard-Noel clings-on as the long-suffering, Catherine of Aragon; Millie O’Connell brings cheeky LOL text speak to the young usurper, Anne Boleyn; Natalie Paris is a softer ‘Baby Spice’ Jane Seymour; Alexia McIntosh is an imposing, no-messing, Anne of Cleeves; Aimie Atkinson makes a vulnerably seductive, Katherine Howard, while Maiya Qansah-Breed takes the sensible crown of Catherine Parr.

The Queens are witty, sassy and bursting with attitude. At 75-minutes straight through, it’s a great party starter.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Six is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 4-16 December 2018. See website for full tour details.

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