Vaudeville Theatre, London
I kicked my theatre year off with a press/media night for the sensational Six The Musical. It’s been 18 months since I last experienced this rapid history lesson of Henry VIII’s wives and my goodness I’ve missed it.
The wives are Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as Catherine of Aragon, Baylie Carson as Anne Boleyn, Claudia Kariuki as Jane Seymour, Dionne Ward-Anderson as Anna of Cleves, Koko Basigara as Katherine Howard and Roxanne Couch as Catherine Parr.
No matter how much you know of the wife’s stories you always pick up something new. This cast is absolutely tremendous, and each time I visit I come out with different memories from moments that strike me. I love the playfulness of Carson, they really bring Anne Boleyn’s character to life. Another particular highlight is Ward-Anderson as Anna of Cleves, I love her rendition of ‘Get Down’, not normally one of my favourite songs, she changed my mind totally.
All the queens though are incredible, and they have the audience in the palms of their hands from the very first note. The lighting and staging really are on the highest level and I dare anyone not to be whipped up into the fabulousness of this sassy production.
I’ve said it before many times, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have written something truly special here,and judging by the accolades, they’ve not only written about it, but they are making History too.
It really is the best history lesson you’ll ever experience. You think, you know the six wives’ stories, when you leave the theatre you’ll feel like you’ve been immersed in 80 minutes of (her)story.
Since its debut outing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, SIX has solidified its global reputation as a musical theatre phenomenon. In addition to the West End production, the show is currently touring across the UK and Australia, with two concurrent productions travelling across North America. The UK tour will be jetting off to Korea to open the show in March. The show will then play Amsterdam and Rotterdam in September. It also continues on Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and three Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Musical earlier this year.
The global success of the show’s score also continues, having amassed over 500 million streams and 3 billion views on TikTok, with the Original Studio Cast Recording achieving Gold status, and a Broadway album, recorded live on their opening night.
SIX is co-directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, featuring choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. The design team includes Emma Bailey (Set Design), Gabriella Slade (Costume Design), Tim Deiling (Lighting Design) and Paul Gatehouse (Sound Design). The score features orchestrations by Tom Curran with music supervision and vocal arrangements by Joe Beighton. Casting for SIX is by Pearson Casting.
SIX is produced by Kenny Wax, Wendy & Andy Barnes and George Stiles.
