Divorced—beheaded—died
Divorced—beheaded—survived
This age-old rhyme—which British schoolkids immemorial have chanted to remember the fate of the six women who had the misfortune of marrying jolly old King Henry VIII—is now a showtune. It serves as catchphrase of the opening number of Six, the international juggernaut of a pop-concert musical that has washed up on 47th Street for what looks to be a healthy, wealthy, and worldly-wise run.
This is not what you might call a traditional musical, nor what formerly would have been considered a well-crafted one. But it has mass appeal, immediacy, enthusiasm, and an incredibly high sense of style; and it revels in what used to be called “girl power” but can now more properly be described as simply, or not-so-simply, power. An audience show for a wide audience, Six is a rafter-raising entertainment that’ll get you throwing your proverbial bonnet in the air (but please keep that mask on, for now). Even if, yes, a third of the crowned characters portrayed did indeed—in the plot, and in actual history (and in actual herstory)—lose their heads.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Demned careless of them, Oscar Wilde or Nöel Coward might have said, although neither of those celebrated dramatists—or Shakespeare, for that matter—ever thought to set his sights on this particular story, the biographical outlines of which were in place long before any of said scribes first emerged from swaddling clothes.
Leave that to Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, two Cambridge University students who devised Six for presentation at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017. Marlow has been a professional for 16 of his 26 years; he started as a child actor at the age of 10. Moss, 27, serves as co-director as well. To say that they are the first of a new generation of musical theater makers is an understatement; they make Pasek and Paul look old, and Lin-Manuel Miranda seem to be of Jerome Kern vintage. (Editor’s Query: Didn’t Rodgers & Hart write something called “Bewitched, Bothered and Beheaded”?)
The musical is told with breathtaking simplicity. We meet our six heroes at curtain rise, introducing themselves to the audience as the “divorced, beheaded, died…” celebrities of yore. They explain to us that they will be competing—on this, their self-proclaimed “Divorced Live Beheaded Tour”—for the title of “who’s the most important wife?” Then come one-by-one demonstrations in song from Catherine of Aragon (Adrianna Hicks); Anne Boleyn (Andrea Macasaet); Jane Seymour (Abby Mueller); Anna of Cleves (Brittney Mack); Katherine Howard (Samantha Pauly); and Catherine Parr (Anna Uzele).
The evening concludes with a number in which they collectively realize that the only reason for their enduring fame—as opposed to names of the lost-to-history wives of, say, Henry VI or Henry VII—is because, well, because they were “divorced, beheaded,” etc. So they sing a closing number, cap it with a song mix they call “The Megasix,” and send the chortling crowds out into the street.
The six give equally high-powered performances. From my seat on the aisle, I somewhat favored Macasaet as Anne Boleyn, perhaps because she has the sharpest material of the bunch. Hicks (who starts the competition as the first wife) and Mueller (as the nice wife, who dies of natural causes) also stand out. Meanwhile, one mustn’t overlook the quartet they call “the ladies in waiting,” keyboardist Julia Schade, sidemen (sidewomen?) Michelle Osbourne and Kimi Hayes, and drummer Elena Bonomo. All are dressed to kill and drolly glare out at us, as directed, with the attitude of sentries on patrol or perhaps prison guards. Attitude amplified, deliciously so. Schade, who also serves as music director, at times looks like some mad queen of hearts on a hand-painted playing card.
Production values are high, considering the relatively simple unit setting and thorough lack of furniture or props other than ever-prominent hand microphones. The smartly functional scenery is designed by Emma Bailey, while splendiferous Tudor costumes with modern-day finesse come from Gabriella Slade. Six especially gleams with its lighting design by Tim Deiling, whose instruments play some mighty nifty tricks, while the ever-important sound design is by Paul Gatehouse. Co-directing with Moss is Jamie Armitage, with choreography from Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. The U.K. production team—responsible for the London edition at the Arts Theatre, which has just now reopened at the significantly larger Vaudeville—assembled the present cast in May 2019 for an engagement at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, followed by stops in Edmonton, Canada, and St. Paul, Minnesota, before moving to the Atkinson for a March 12, 2020 opening which was postponed an hour before curtain. And then there was a pandemic….
There are some who might say—without actually seeing this new musical, most likely—that it is a fine musical for teenaged girls and their mothers. Agreed. But Six offers so much more, and does so with steady propulsion and an irresistible sense of high style.
“Don’t lose ur head” sings Anne Boleyn, savagely wielding her microphone, and you can’t argue with that.
Six opened October 3, 2021, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Tickets and information: sixonbroadway.com
