Preview: One lost her head, the others their voice; Broadway musical SIX gives power back to Henry VIII's wives
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The musical SIX started as a class project in the Cambridge music department and went on to become an international sensation.
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Toby Marlow and fellow student Lucy Moss collaborated on the musical about the six wives of Henry VIII, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, featuring a student cast. Two years later, productions were mounted in both London and New York, and it has since been produced around the world. The American tour plays at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium from May 20 to 25.
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Gaby Albo, who plays Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, says SIX is 'a modern concert style show. Something you'd expect from Beyonce. It's fun and fast. It started as a school project, and right away it just went wild. There is a new soundtrack album of the original cast, plus a filmed version of the play that has already [been] in cinemas in the United Kingdom, and will be released later this year in America.'
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She explains that the six wives have formed a band, and they create this contest to see who will be the lead singer. The winner will be the wife who suffered the most at the hands of Henry, so they all detail their time with him.
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Anne would seem to be the automatic winner. After all, Henry had her beheaded.
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Albo is quick to point out that SIX is 'not a history lesson, and you don't need to know the facts of these women before going into the musical. Each of the wives tells their own story in the play, and there is information in the program.'
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Each wife has a distinct style, as if they were pop divas. Marlow and Moss used Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson as inspiration when they were creating the musical style for Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. They were inspired by Avril Lavigne and Lily Allen when creating Anne Boleyn.
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'The great thing about the show is that we don't have to stick with the pop singers they used. We have the freedom to choose our own inspiration. I used Ariana Grande.'
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Albo says the costumes are 'very modern but they still have royalty and grandeur to them. It's a way of making these women more relatable to a modern audience. They are not some old historical figures. They are very real.'
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Catherine Parr, Henry's final wife, helps the others see that, with this contest, they are defining themselves. They are much more than simply his wives. They are people on their own. She says they are doing what history has done to them: defined them entirely in terms of Henry.
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'That's what the musical ends up doing. It's giving a voice to people who have really been silenced. They are individuals. They are not just Henry's wives,' says Albo.
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