Six: The Musical | Reviews of the Nerds

TRANSCRIPT

Hello there. I’m Rachel Knight and this is Reviews of the Nerds.

Today I’m reviewing the musical Six. Six is a musical about the six wives of King Henry VIII. We’re telling the women stories in the format of a pop concert. Six was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. After a start at Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, the musical premiered on the West End in London in January 2019 and officially opened on Broadway in October of 2021 after pandemic closures delayed it scheduled opening in March of 2020. There were also touring companies and international productions, including a couple of productions on cruise ships.

The studio cast recording with a British cast that included two members of the original West End cast was released in March of 2018. And the live cast recording of Broadway’s opening night is currently available for streaming and will release on both CD and vinyl in June.

The show does take some liberties with the history of the six women, but it’s overall a very enjoyable experience. Each of the queens have their own song and the style of different pop stars, and the show is wonderful both to see live and to enjoy via cast recordings.

The live recording from Broadway of the cast singing even includes some of that between song dialog, the encore song at the end of the show, and an alternate version of Jane Seymour’s song, sang by the understudies and standbys.

I would recommend this show to all adults, though I would recommend parents do research before bringing children. I had the pleasure of seeing the show live on the West End in January of 2020, and it was one of my favorite memories from my time in London. While most of the less child appropriate lyrics in Six could be missed by young children, there are references to adult topics. After all, the queens are divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survive, as that common rhyme goes.

The show does not shy away from the historical reasoning behind divorces and beheadings. So I would suggest that parents either listen to a cast recording or read lyrics before sharing Six with their children. But overall, I would recommend this show to most people. It is a wonderful retelling of these women’s stories in a way of reclaiming herstory.

I’m Rachel Knight and remember, don’t lose your head.

Reviews of the Nerds are not traditional reviews, in that we don’t offer a rating, nor do we tend to review things we don’t like. Reviews of the Nerds is all about finding the right audience for what we are reviewing.