Six is a quick romp of a show–barely 80 minutes—in which the six wives of Henry VIII appear as pop stars engaged in a competition to determine who suffered the most from their marriage to the famous king. Each gets a big number to prove her point, with the others providing backing vocals, right up to the female empowerment ending that rejects the whole idea of a competition between them. So what if Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were mortal enemies. They acknowledge that they were both bad ass women who gave Henry a hard time.
(In a canny move, the queens ensure that we keep our phones in our pockets by promising that we can take photos and videos of their final number.)
Deep it’s not. Fun? Absolutely! I’m not the target audience for this show (nice to see so many young people!) but I still had a great time. Each queen is distinctive, from her fabulous color-coded costume to her singing style.
Catherine of Aragon, dressed in gold and wearing the most traditional crown of the six, channels Queen Bey herself. Anne Boleyn, in bright green and sporting two little spiked space buns as her crown, is more Miley Cyrus or Avril Lavigne. (Ahistorically, this Anne seems to have no interest in politics.) Jane Seymour, who perhaps genuinely loved Henry before dying in childbirth, gets an Adele-style ballad.
And so forth… including a delightful visit to the Haus of Holbein where the show suggests that the production of marriage portraits, such as the Anne of Cleves portrait that led Henry to marry her, is much more like Tinder than we realized. All performed, of course, as a parody of German electronic “Haus” music.
Don’t expect Hamilton. Six is not that show. In spite of some late and rather feeble gestures toward a feminist message, Six doesn’t give you much to reflect on. Just go and scream with the kids.
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