Touring – reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Guest reviewer: Martin Gray
Any doubts about Six being able to stand up as an actual theatre piece rather than the jolly good Fringe show it started out as vanish as the Queens chant the old mnemonic in the style of Chicago’s classic ‘Cell Block Tango’. You know, the one that starts: ‘Pop. Six. Squish. Uh uh. Cicero. Lipschitz.’
‘Six’? If that’s a coincidence, it’s a perfect one. But the ladies in this show aren’t ‘merry murderesses’ on Death Row, they’re a murderer’s row of British history’s best-known queens.
How well do we really know Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr. Who lost their head over Henry VIII? Which one survived?
And who was the greatest of them all? As Harry Hill would say, there’s only one way to settle this – FIGHT! But the reincarnated ladies of the court don’t get physical, they sing out, vying for audience approval with the most heart-tending tale, the gutsiest vocals, the killer dance moves. We’re getting a pop consort…
The stage is a dazzling display of light, while the costumes evoke Tudor styles, with a space age twist, as much Hot Gossip as Holbein.
Speaking of the painter, his work features in the show’s best number, Haus of Holbein, which tells the (disputed) tale of how it was his portrait of Anne of Cleves which persuaded Henry to wed her rather than Christina of Denmark.
Bedecked in neon sunglasses and glowing ruffs, the ladies belt out a wonderfully cheesy, razor sharp number, backed by terrific house (palace?) band the Ladies in Waiting. Ladies and ladies, right there we have a Eurovision winner.
The number is followed by Anne’s solo – everyone gets a solo – Get Down, which likens the comparing of portraits with today’s Tinder swiping. It’s a clever idea, excellently staged.
While I’m not particularly partial to a sad ballad – Jane Seymour’s Heart of Stone – I can’t claim there’s a bad song in the bunch. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ lyrics have wit to spare, historical fact is elegantly laced into the lines and the tunes are bangin’ (the majority of the bonkers enthusiastic audience was at least two generations younger than the typical Edinburgh crowd, so this review chooses to, er, get down with the kids).
Lauren Drew, Kat Bax on Bass, Maddison Bulleyment, Lauren Byrne, Athena Collins, Shekinah McFarlane, Frankie South on Guitar, Jodie Steele and Arlene McNaught (MD/Keys). Pic: Johan Persson
The chat in between the songs – and this really is mostly songs, nine of ‘em plus the delightfully titled Megasix – is equally entertaining, with a running gag about Anne Boleyn’s fate being especially fun, always appropriate and superbly delivered by Maddison Bulleyment.
She has a heck of a voice too, a facility she shares with fellow queens Lauren Drew, Shekinah McFarlane, Lauren Byrne, Athena Collins and Jodie Steele; but they don’t all have the same voice, with each using their instrument differently, but always perfectly. And when they sing together, they send warmth up the spine (is that a thing? If not, it really ought to be…).
Carrie-Anne Ingrouille choreographs while writer Moss co-directs with Jamie Armitage and they’ve done a fine job, drilling their players into a convincing girl group, different personalities evident but with a unified spirit that makes them truly formidable.
It’s the Queens’ final coming together that underlines the show’s message that while we remember the Six Wives of Henry VIII because there were six, they weren’t purely victims of the patriarchy, they were individuals with their own stories and, often, agency.
And in Six they reclaim their tales’ showbiz pizzazz, with an awful lot of heart and enough energy to light Hampton Court for 500 years.
Running time: One hour and 15 minutes (no interval)
Festival Theatre 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000
Tuesday 4 – Sunday 9 February 2020
Tue – Thurs & Sat: 8pm; Fri 6pm & 8.30pm; Matinees Sat 2.30pm & Sun 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Six on tour:
4 – 9 Feb
Edinburgh
Festival Theatre
0131 529 6000
Book online
11 – 15 Feb
Aylesbury
Waterside Theatre
0844 871 7607
Book online
18 – 23 Feb
Bath
Theatre Royal
01225 448844
Book online
3 – 7 Mar
Liverpool
Playhouse Theatre
0151 709 4776
Book online
10 – 14 Mar
Wolverhampton
Grand Theatre
01902 42 92 12
Book online
17 – 21 Mar
Brighton
Theatre Royal
0844 871 7650
Book online
24 – 29 Mar
Nottingham
Theatre Royal
0115 989 5555
Book online
31 Mar – 05 Apr
Bromley
Churchill Theatre
020 3285 6000
Book online
07 – 12 Apr
Southend
Cliffs Pavilion
01702 351135
Book online
21 – 25 Apr
Mold
Theatr Clwyd
01352 344101
Book online
28 Apr – 02 May
Sheffield
Lyceum Theatre
0114 249 6000
Book online
05 – 10 May
Dublin
Bord Gais Energy Theatre
+353 (1) 677 7999
Book online
13 – 17 May
Hull
New Theatre
01482 300 306
Book online
19 – 24 May
Canterbury
Marlowe Theatre
01227 787787
Book online
27 – 31 May
Plymouth
Theatre Royal
01752 267222
Book online
2 – 7 Jun
Coventry
Belgrade Theatre
024 7655 3055
Book online
9 – 14 Jun
Leicester
Curve Theatre
0116 242 3595
Book online
16 – 20 Jun
Leeds
Grand Theatre
0844 848 2700
Book online
22 – 27 Jun
Newcastle
Theatre Royal
08448 11 21 21
Book online
1 – 5 Jul
Southampton
Mayflower Theatre
02380 711811
Book online
7 – 11 Jul
Bristol
Hippodrome Theatre
0844 871 3012
Book online
14 – 19 Jul
Norwich
Theatre Royal
01603 63 00 00
Book online
21 – 25 Jul
Birmingham
Hippodrome
0844 338 5000
Book online
26 Oct – 7 Nov
Cheltenham
Everyman Theatre
01242 572573
Book online
