SIX QUEENS BEAT A FULL HOUSE

A Clever, Electrifying Concert That
Sometimes Overwhelms Its Own Story

History serves us well in stories for musicals. From 1776 to Evita to Hamilton, all the plot is ready and waiting to be served up and put to music. So when you marry six women in thirty-four years, you’re kind of begging to have a musical written about you. Except that Henry VIII himself probably wouldn’t have liked this tribute to those six women—where he never gets to show up. But you will.

The National Tour of SIX (Boleyn Company)

The 2022 Tony nominee for Best Musical opens with a big, splashy, Vegas-like number (“Ex-Wives”), where we meet all six queens in a high-octane production number with flavors of Hamilton and Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango,” as they tell us a little about their ordeal. If you think you’re going to see all of their lives played out, like most historical plays and musicals, though, you are quite mistaken. Co-writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (who co-directs with Jamie Armitage) have a different trick up their ruffled Tudor-smock sleeves.

The North American Tour of SIX (Boleyn Company)

The gimmick of SIX is that the six women are back from the dead to put on a concert for us—complete with concert tropes like “Helloooooo San Diego!” to get us to hoot back. And within that concert, they are each competing: which of us six had it the worst as Henry’s wife? From there, each sings directly to us about her ordeal, primarily in very upbeat, pop-inflected songs about the crap they went through and their unfortunate endings with him.

Emma Elizabeth Smith as Catherine of Aragon

The cast includes, in order of unfortunate marriages to dear Henry: Emma Elizabeth Smith as Catherine of Aragon; Nella Cole as Anne Boleyn (understudied marvelously tonight by Carlina Parker); Kelly Denice Taylor as Jane Seymour; Hailey Alexis Lewis as Anna of Cleves; Alizé Cruz as Katherine Howard; and Tasia Jungbauer as Catherine Parr.

Nella Cole as Anne Boleyn

Starting with what’s very right about this show: the cast. Excellent voices across the board, led by Roberta Duchak’s musical supervision, keep the high energy going the whole time, as if we were at a K-pop concert. Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s demanding choreography is splendid, with admirable synchronicity considering they almost never stop moving. As each woman tells her story, the other five become her backup group; no one ever leaves the stage. There’s one moment toward the end where they all actually sit down—and even I exhaled, in sympathy for the relentless expectations placed on these six.

Kelly Denice Taylor as Jane Seymour

Much like with Hamilton, this might be a show better enjoyed a second time, after listening to the soundtrack, to catch the words better. The greatest flaw of this production (and of so many shows at the Civic) is that it’s almost impossible to catch everything being said. And what a shame, because there’s such cleverness to Marlow and Moss’s lyrics when you do catch them. But between the speed of the words and the volume of Tom Curran’s orchestra, a lot was missed. Not surprisingly, despite the joyful energy of the up-tempo numbers, I preferred some of the ballads simply because I caught all the lyrics.

As such, much as I hate spoilers in general, it’s actually better to go in somewhat informed about each woman’s fate. Knowing what happens to them won’t give much away, because the fun of this show lies in how they express it. Having that background can make the experience easier to follow and appreciate. A concise summary can be found here.

Hailey Alexis Lewis as Anna of Cleves

Another concern: lighting. Tim Deiling does much that’s outstanding, beautifully accenting the show, but makes one very unfortunate choice—repeatedly. Bright white lights suddenly burst upon the audience with blinding intensity, sometimes from within the set and sometimes from above, like the world’s most aggressive camera flash. More than once, I had to look away to rest my eyes, and eventually found myself anticipating and bracing for the next blast. The effect felt like the optical equivalent of a slap in the face. It could have been achieved at half the wattage without repeatedly pulling me out of the moment and diminishing my enjoyment of the performances.

Alizé Cruz as Katherine Howard

A huge star of the show works behind the scenes. Costume designer Gabriella Slade is a creative glory, blending 16th-century royal silhouettes with chic, club-ready fashion so the women look both regal and ultra-stylish. Coupled with the excellent work of Lisa Chan, hair supervisor for the SIX U.S. tour, the costumes set the show’s dynamic tone perfectly.

Tasia Jungbauer as Catherine Parr

In some ways, SIX wasn’t quite as satisfying as seeing these stories fully played out, which I entered expecting—but that would probably require a six-part miniseries, and clearly that was never the intention. If you go in knowing this is more a spirited, one-act concert than a traditional musical—and that the songs are the stories—the show has a much better chance of taking you exactly where it wants to go with its exuberant playfulness and wry humor.

photos by Joan Marcus

Six
national tour – Boleyn cast
reviewed at the San Diego Civic, 1100 Third Avenue
ends on January 4, 2025, in San Diego
for tickets, call 619.564.3000 or visit BroadwaySD
tour continues; for more tour dates and cities, visit SIX